WASHINGTON 
OLD AND NEW 

By BARRY BULKLEY 



Author of "The First Continental 
Congress," "TheCity of Washing- 
ton," "The Yellowstone National 
Park," "The Panama Canal," 
"Portland, the City of Roses," 
"The United States Navy" and 
other manuscripts and lectures. 
"District Day" Lecturer at Fan- 
American Exposition, Lecturer by 
invitation of the Board of Educa- 
tion of New York City, and by 
request of the United States Gov- 
ernment at Louisiana Purchase 
and Lewis and Clark Expositions 



Written at Request of GEO. P. SCHUTT 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 
1914 



COPYRIGHTED 1913 

BY 

BARRY BULKLEY 



PRESS OP 

WASHINGTON PRINTING CO. 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 




THIS little book aims to give the reader in concise 

form the events leading up to the selection of the 

site for the National Capital and to briefly trace 

ils growth from the ante-bellum days and 

the period immediately succeeding the 

Civil War to the present time. 

Grateful acknowledgement for helpful 
suggestions is made to the Hon. Robert 
Wickliffe WooUey, Auditor of the U. S. 
Treasury for the Interior Department; 
Charles Clinton Swisher, Ph.D., LL.D., 
Professor of History, The George Wash- 
ington University; nrs. Aary Stevens 
Beall, Secretary of the Columbia Historical 
Society, and to the Honorable Henry B. 
F. Aacfarland, whose loyalty to the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and whose unselfish de- 
votion to her interests have been a source 
of constant inspiration to her citizens. 

B. B. 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 



CHAPTER 1 

Ehi^ ^tWttmn nf a P^rmatt^nt (Eapttal 

WASHINGTON is the splendid result of the 
first sordid political deal ever made in the 
Congress of the United States. It is the bril- 
liant realization of the dream of a civic idealist, L'En- 
fant. It is the nation's pledge to the future of the per- 
feet municipality. While named for our first Presi- < 
dent, Thomas Jefl:'erson is responsible for its location 
on the banks of the Potomac. He saw a chance to 
drive for the South a bargain with Alexander Hamil- 
ton, in whose personal integrity he had the utmost 
confidence, but whose politics he despised and whose 
schemes for the welfare of the infant republic he mis- 
trusted, and he drove it with a shrewdness and coolness 
which would do credit to a business statesman of to- 
day. 

The selection of a permanent capital was squarely 
up to the First Congress, following the adoption of a 
Federal Constitution. Fully a dozen cities had good 
claims. Each of several of these had actually been the 
seat of government for brief periods during the dis- 
orderly and unsatisfactory existence of the Continental 
Congress. One day citizens of a town would glory in 
their good fortune; the next they would awake to find 
that hungry soldiers of the Revolution, demanding pay 
for services rendered, had caused the Convention to 
decide to move on with haste. Baltimore, Lancaster, 
York, Princeton, Trenton and Annapolis had all been 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 



temporary refuges following the enforced abandon- 
ment of Philadelphia in June, 1783, and each had sub- 
stantial claims on the people. Precedent and the imag- 
ination, however, counted heavily in favor of the 
Quaker City or New York. The one was nearest to 
the then center of population and was really the cradle 
of American liberty ; the other had already become the 
leading seaport of the country, and had the largest 
number of people. 

In October, 1783, Elbridge Gerry offered a resolu- 
tion to erect buildings for the use of the Continental 
Congress on the banks of the Potomac or of the Dela- 
ware. Six months later it was so amended as to pro- 
vide for such building on both rivers ; but the resolu- 
tion was repealed altogether on April 26, 1784. In 
October, 1784, two Committees of Congress were ap- 
pointed, under a resolution to select a place for the 
permanent capital either in New Jersey or in Mary- 
land. The Maryland Committee was instructed to 
''examine and report on a location at or near the lower 
falls of the Potomac." But nothing came of its find- 
ings. The question continued to be uppermost in the 
minds of the lawmakers and the people down to the 
day of settlement in 1790. It was generally agreed 
that it would not be wise to locate the seat of the Fed- 
eral Government in any State capital. 

George Mason and James Madison were chiefly re- 
sponsible for the action taken by the Constitutional 
Convention in 1787. Mason was for providing defin- 
itely against the selection of a State capital ; Mr. i\Iadi- 
son held that a central residence for the government 
was necessary. On the latter's motion, the Congress' 
powers under the constitution were added to as fol- 
lows : 



W AS HI N GT O N OLD AND N E W 

"To exercise exclusive legislation, in all cases what- 
soever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles 
square) as may by cession of the particular States and 
the acceptance of Congress become the seat of gov- 
ernment of the United States. Art. i, Sec. 7." 

With the ushering in of the first Congress under the 
constitution the Capital question became fraught with 
danger. The New England and Eastern States de- 
manded first Germantown, Pennsylvania. But the rep- 
resentatives from the Southern States stood fast for 
the Potomac. When the question came to a vote Sep- 
tember 3, 1789, the New England members charged 
that the country along the latter was an unhealthy wil- 
derness ; Mr. Madison replied that the banks of the 
Susquehanna were even more unhealthy. 

"The gentleman from Virginia seems to think the 
banks of the Potomac a paradise and that river a 
Euphrates," retorted the brilliant Fisher Ames, of 
Massachusetts. 

A Georgia member went so far as to predict that if 
the North insisted on the Susquehanna site it would 
"blow the coals of sedition and endanger the Union." 

Mr. Wads worth, of Connecticut, said, "he did not 
dare to go to the Potomac ; he feared the whole of 
New England would consider the Union destroyed." 

Richard Bland Lee, of Virginia, said : "If it should 
be found that confederacies of States east of Penn- 
sylvania were formed, to unite their councils for their 
particular interests, disregarding the Southern States, 
they would be alarmed and the faith of all south of the 
Potomac would be shaken. Virginia had not solicited 
Congress to place the seat of Government in her State, 
only contending that the interests of the Southern and 



irASHINGTON OLD AXD XEW 

Western country should be consulted ; that their in- 
terests would be sacrificed if Congress fixed on any 
place but the Potomac." 

Air. Madison affirmed that "if the declarations and 
proceeding's of this day had been brought into view in 
the Convention of Virginia, which adopted the Federal 
Constitution, he firmly believed X'irginia would not 
have been a part of the Union at this moment." 

As a result, the House adopted a resolution author- 
izing the President to appoint three Commissioners to 
select a site on the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania. 
Later on the Senate, by a tie vote, which was broken 
by Vice-President Adams voting in the affirmative, 
decided on a district ten miles square at Germantown, 
Pennsylvania ; whereupon the House passed the Sen- 
ate Bill, with an amendment providing that the laws 
of Pennsylvania should continue in force in the Fed- 
eral District. Only one day of the Senate remained, 
and the Bill finally died for want of action. The 
South's opportunity, seized upon by Jefiferson, came 
with the defeat in the House in Committee of the 
Whole, April 12, 1790, of the bill, drawn by Alexander 
Hamilton, for funding the Federal debt and assuming 
the debts incurred by the thirteen States during the 
Revolutionary War. Those States whose debts were 
not embarrassing — Virginia was chief among these — 
maintained that it would be an invasion of State pre- 
rogatives for the General Government to levy taxes 
to pay debts contracted separately, by the respective 
States; furthermore, that it would be grossly unfair 
to them should they be obliged to share the burdens 
of States whose debts were considerable. 

Alexander Hamilton contended that the credit of 
the new nation was at stake and he threw all of his 

10 




THOMAS JEFFERSON 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

splendid ability into the fight for the passage of what 
had come to be popularly known as the '^Assumption 
Bill." Moreover, he foresaw that upon its enactment 
the federal bonds would be tightened and the impor- 
tance of individual States correspondingly mmimized. 
In a paper read before the American Historical Asso- 
ciation in 1895, Gaillard Hunt states the issue as fol- 
lows : "Upon the former (Assumption Bill) depended 
the financial standing of the new nation in the eyes of 
the world, while the latter (location of a permanent 
capital) was a measure of purely domestic concern. 
The two, however, had no connection with one^ an- 
other, yet, by a system since come to be known as 'log- 
rolling,' they became involved. 

"The Eastern members of Congress desired the 
passage of the 'Assumption Bill,' but had no hope, for 
geographical reasons, of obtaining the capital. The 
members from the Middle States, on the other hand, 
were determined, if possible, that the seat of the Fed- • 
era! Government should be permanently located at 
Philadelphia or in that neighborhood. * * * But 
Viro-inia and Washington conceived that they also had 
claims to the Capital, and their respective legislatures 
had already taken steps to procure it. 

"On December 27, 1788, before Congress had come 
together, the General Assembly of Virginia passed 
resolutions offering ten miles square of any portion 
of the State for the new Federal City— which the Con- 
stitution provided for, and (Alexander) White laid 
these resolutions before the National House of Rep- 
resentatives May 15, 1789- On the following day, 
Senev of Maryland, offered a similar act from the 
legislature of his State. Maryland and \ irgmia were 

13 



I^V ASH I X GT O X OLD AX D X E W 

not, however, in hostile rivalry in their efforts to ob- 
tain the Federal District. They contemplated its loca- 
tion on the banks of the Potomac, and they calculated 
upon jointly profiting- in consequence." 

On December lo, 1789, the General Assembly of 
Virginia informed the General Assembly of Maryland 
that it would advance $120,000 toward the erection of 
public buildings in the new Federal City — if it should 
be located on the Potomac, provided Maryland would 
advance three-fifths of that sum, and at the November 
session, the Maryland Assembly appropriated $72,000 
for the purpose. 

Mr. Jefferson was well aware that Mr. Hamilton's 
assumption scheme was bound to triumph eventually; 
by agreeing to use his influence to hasten its passage 
he could combine the Puritans and the Cavaliers and 
snatch the Capital from the Quakers. So he gave a 
dinner which he describes in his Anas as follows : 

*'As I was going to the President's one day, I met 
him (Hamilton) in the street. He walked me back- 
ward and forward before the President's door for half 
an hour. He painted pathetically the temper into 
which the Legislature had been wrought, the disgust 
of those who were called the creditor States, the dan- 
ger of secession of their members, and the separation 
of the States. He observed that the members of the 
administration ought to act in concert ; that though this 
question was not in my department, yet a common duty 
should make it a common concern ; that the President 
was the center on which all the administrative ques- 
tions ultimately rested, and all of us should rally 
around him ; and that, the question having been lost 
by a small majority only, it was probable that an ap- 

14 



WASHINGTOX OLD AXD NEW 

peal from me to the judgment and discretion of some 
of my friends might effect a change in the vote and 
the machine of government, now suspended, might be 
again set in motion. I told him that I was really a 
stranger to the whole subject ; not having yet informed 
myself of the systems of finance adopted ; I knew not 
how far this was a necessary sequence ; that individ- 
ually, if its rejection endangered a dissolution of our 
Union at this incipient state, I should deem that the 
most unfortunate of all consequences, to avert which 
all partial and temporary evils should be yielded. I 
proposed to him, however, to dine with me the next 
day, and I would invite another friend or two ; bring 
them into the conference together and I thought it 
impossible that reasonable men, consulting together 
coolly, could fail with some mutual sacrifices of opinion 
to form a compromise which was to save the Union. 

''The discussion took place. I could take no part in 
it but an exhortatory one, because I was a stranger to 
the circumstances which should govern it. But it was 
finally agreed that, whatever importance had been at- 
tached to the rejection of the proposition, the preserv- 
ation of the Union and of Concord among the States 
was more important and that, therefore, it would be 
better that the vote of rejection be rescinded, to effect 
which some members should change their votes. But 
it was observed that this bill would be peculiarly bit- 
ter to the Southern States and that some concomitant 
measure should be adopted to sweeten it a little to 
them. There had before been propositions to fix the 
seat of government either at Philadelphia or at George- 
town on the Potomac, and it was thought by giving it 
to Philadelphia for ten years, and to Georgetown per- 

15 



WASHINGTON OLD AXD NEW 

nianently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, cahn 
in some degree the ferment which might be excited by 
the other measure also. So two of the Potomac mem- 
bers (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of 
stomach almost convulsive) agreed to change their 
votes, and Hamilton undertook to carry the other point. 
In doing this, the influence he had established over the 
Eastern members, with the agency of Robert Morris, 
wnth those of the Middle States, effected his side of 
the engagement, and so the assumption was passed, and 
twenty millions of stock divided among favored States 
and thrown in as pabulum to the stock- jobbing herd." 

Jefiferson gives us no further details, but it is sig- 
nificant that Hamilton carried out his part of the agree- 
ment first. The House passed the bill locating the 
Capital on the banks of the Potomac, between the East- 
ern Branch and Conococheague Creek, on July 9, 1790, 
by a vote of 2)^ to 29. It went through the Senate 
wnth little delay and was signed by the President a few 
days later. 

Rumors that a bargain had been driven traveled as 
rapidly as the news that a Capital bill had at last been 
enacted, and the Middle States w^ere far from happy 
over having the seat of government at Philadelphia for 
ten years only. 

The question of the hour soon became: "Where in 
Hades is the Conococheague?" The rhymsters and the 
ready letter writers got busy in the newspapers of New 
York, Boston, Charleston and Albany. For the in- 
formation of the reader of today, let it be known that 
this modest stream — a small creek — rises in Franklin 
County, Pennsylva<nia, and flows through Washington 
Ccnmty, Maryland, and into the Potomac at Williams- 

16 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON 



/ 



IV A S H I X GT O N OLD A N D NEW 

port, fully eighty miles from the mouth of the Eastern 
Branch. But the country above the Great Falls of the 
Potomac was never seriously considered. 

The President, under the law, had the right to choose 
any ten square miles he pleased between the two points 
and started his surveys at the extreme eastern boun- 
dary prescribed in the Act. He seems to have been 
perplexed only over the erection of the city in the Fed- 
eral District. The owners of the land at the mouth of 
the Eastern Branch held out for what the President 
considered unreasonable prices. The land adjacent to 
Georgetown was then decided on, but the owners of it 
also demanded fancy sums and only came to terms 
after George Washington himself appeared and bar- 
gained with them personally. 

An additional act of Congress, passed March 3, 1791, 
was necessary to fix the boundaries of the District of 
Columbia as finally constituted. 

In his proclamation of January 24, 1791, the Presi- 
dent "prescribed" four lines of experiment, beginning 
at Hunting Creek, on the Virginia shore, just below 
Alexandria and embracing a portion of territory be- 
yond the Eastern Branch, and consequently not in- 
cluded in the law. A second proclamation was drawn 
at Georgetown in Jefferson's own hand, read by Wash- 
ington at Mt. Vernon, all that was asserted about pub- 
lic buildings being stricken out, and it was returned to 
be engrossed before the President signed it, which he 
did on ]\larch 30. 

On January 22, 1791, the President appointed 
Thomas Johnson and Daniel Carroll, of Maryland, and 
David Stewart, of Virginia. Commissioners for survey- 
ing the territory of the district accepted for the per- 

19 



/ [' A S H I X G r O X OLD A \ D \ E \V 

manent seat of the Federal ( iovernnient. It promptly 
became apparent, however, that the iiamin*^ of tliis 
Committee was little more than a comi)liance with the 
letter of the act of Jnly i6, 1790. ^Ir. Washing-ton 
had already done the work. On January 24, just two 
days later, letters patent were issued to the effect "after 
duly examining and w-eighing the advantages and dis- 
advantages of several situations" those portions of 
^laryland and Virginia which now constitute the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and Alexandria County (the receded 
portion of the District) respectively had been chosen. 
This reaching out for territory not described in the 
original act, made necessary tlie second enabling act 
of Congress. 

The date of the beginning of the survey may be 
fixed from the following correspondence : On Febru- 
ary 2. 179^ Secretarv of State Jefferson wrote ]\Iajor 
El'licott: 

"You are desired to ])roceed by the first stage to the 
Federal Territory on the Potomac to make a survey 
of it." 

T^lajor Ellicott replied in part, February 14: 

'T arrived at this town on Monday last, ])ut the 
cloudy weather prevented any observation from being- 
made until h>iday. which was fine. On Saturday the 
two first lines were completed." 

h^llicott officially rei)orted on January 1. 17(^3, 'that 
he had completed the work of marking with lioundary 
stones the outlines of the Federal territory. 

Every school child knows today that tlie elaborate 
plans for a magnificent capital cit\- within the District 
■ — now so nearly carried out and with such wonderful 
results — were drawn by Major I'eter Clinrles L'l'jifant. 

20 



[[' ASH I ACT O X O L 1) A X D X II IV 

His great work was done in obedience to the follow in^i^ 
order, dated March ii, 1791, and signed by Secretary 
of State Jefiferson : 

"Sir: You are desired to proceed to (Georgetown, 
where you will find Air. Ellicott employed in making 
a survey and map of the Federal territory. The espe- 
cial object of asking your aid is to have drawings of 
the particular grounds most likely to be approved for 
the site of the Federal town and buildings. You will, 
therefore, be pleased to begin on the Eastern Branch, 
and proceed from thence upwards, laying down the 
hills, valleys, morasses and w^aters between that, the 
Potomac, the Tiber and the road leading from George- 
town to the Eastern Branch, and the whole within cer- 
tain fixed points of the map ^Nlr. Ellicott is preparing. 
Some idea of the height of the hills above the base 
on which they stand would be desirable. For neces- 
sary assistance and expenses, be pleased to apply to 
the Mayor of Georgetown, who is written on the sub- 
ject. I will beg the favor of you to mark to me your 
progress about twice a week — say every Wednesday 
and Saturday evening — that I may be able in proper 
time to draw attention to some other objects which I 
have not at this moment time sufficient to define." 

Washington took a tremendous interest in the em- 
bryo city. Frequent trips from his estate, Mt. A ernon, 
were made to Washington, where he conferred with 
Ellicott and LTinfant, and he was kept constantly ad- 
vised while at Philadelphia of the progress of the work 
of constructing buildings and laying out streets. In 
addition to having it become the most beautiful capital 
in the world, he wished it to be a great commercial 
center. That time has fulfilled this wish only in part 
is a constant source of gratification to those who real- 

21 



/ y A s H I X c; T o x — old a \ d \ e \v 

ize now the wisdom of having the Capital City primarily 
and largely the political, social, artistic and literary hub 
of the nation and a gathering place for great thinkers 
and achievers of great things from all parts of the 
world. 

It is interesting to read in the IWishington Gazette 
of June 25. 1796, the first paper published in the new 
city, a proclamation by President Washington, setting 
forth that the requirements of building all houses in 
the Federal city of brick or stone, and not less than 
35 feet high, had retarded the settlement of the city 
by mechanics and others and that, therefore, it would 
be suspended until the year 1800. 

Raising funds sufficient to defray the cost of con- 
structing public buildings caused the Commissioners 
of the District frequently to hold public auction sales 
of lots, at one-third cash, balance payable in one and 
two years. 

Probably the greatest speculator in these lots was 
an Englishman, Thomas Law. He was a son of the 
Bishop of Carlisle, and had made a fortune in India 
prior to coming to the United States. Law seems to 
have invested with recklessness and an optimism which 
would have put a Mulberry Sellers to shame. In the 
heydey of his fame, and business activities, he was mar- 
ried to L^lizabeth Parke Custis, a granddaughter of 
Martha Washington. The union was not a happy one 
and in due time they were separated. Tradition has 
it that one morning, while he was at breakfast, his 
negro waiter announced : 

"Massa Thomas, Missus Law died last night." 

*'The hell she did? Pass the potatoes," was his only 
rcj^ly. 

( )f Thomas Law, George Alfred Townsend says: 
22 




THOS. LAW 



WASH! N G T O A OLD A N D N E W 

"One man only have I ever talked with who person- 
ally saw Thomas Law, namely, the late Christopher 
Lowndes, of Bladensburg, and his father took him to 
an oyster house somewhere in Washington, where they 
met a grave, sweet old man, with whom they had some 
oysters, and he read them a poem of his own." 

Mr. Samuel Lorenzo Knapp pays Law this tribute : 
"Thomas Law, Esq., has, although now nearly an 
octogenarian, lately published a book upon currency. 
He is a man of no ordinary powers of mind. His life 
has been an eventful one. In England, his native 
country, he was considered a man of mind. In India 
he was distinguished for his financial talents, and was 
the great benefactor to the natives, by his judicious 
plans for their relief. He was the companion of Teign- 
mouth and the friend of Sir William Jones. Active 
and enterprising, he saw the accounts of the establish- 
ment of our Federal city, and he hastened to this coun- 
try to identify himself with its growth, from the corner 
stone to the setting of the gates thereof. He pur- 
chased largely of the soil, built on an extensive scale, 
suggested ten thousand plans for the improvement of 
the city, and for the prosperity of the nation ; but the 
slow, doubtful, and often strange course of Congress, 
came not only in his way, but in the w^ay of all those 
deeply interested in the welfare of the city ; and he 
has spent the days of his maturity and wisdom in un- 
availing efforts for the improvement of it. It is happy 
for him, however, that he has lived to see the dawn of 
a better day for Washington ; and if he cannot stay 
here long to enjoy it, as a good man he will rejoice in 
the hopes of his friends and descendants. If his dis- 
appointments have been numerous, yet it cannot be 
said that they have soured his temper or hardened his 

25 



If AS H J X G r O X OLD AND N E W 

heart, or that his tenants have felt his resentment, be- 
cause he was deceived by those who could have favored 
his plans. In this world, the insults received from 
those above us, are often repeated by those below us. 
in ])itiful and ag\q:ravated forms." 

David Burns. Washington's "obstinate Mr. Burns," 
owned much of the site of the future Federal city, an 
inheritance through several g-enerations of Scotch an- 
cestors, and with him President Washington had 
largely to do in his negotiations for the land. 

And there were others, too, with an eye to the wind- 
ward for a real estate speculation, as Thomas S. Wood- 
ward attests : "I picture William Prout, the staid Bal- 
timore merchant; Benjamin Stoddert, the Revolution- 
ary soldier; Robert [Morris, the great financier of the 
colonies ; Samuel Blodg-ett, the lottery man ; the 
Youngs, gentlemen of the manor born ; James Green- 
leaf, the prince of schemers ; Thomas Law, the man 
of the world ; George W^alker, the canny Scotsman, 
and all the lesser lights, clad in the quaint costume of 
the time, doing business as real estate brokers after 
the most approved methods." 

Richard Parkinson, who toured America in 1798 to 
1800, and published two volumes of interesting impres- 
sions, reports that there were only 300 houses in Wash- 
ington when he visited it and that the time was not 
ripe for starting a brewery there. Mr. Parkinson fur- 
ther states: "If a man wants wit, he may go to 
America ; but if he wants money and comfort he should 
stay at home." A man named Blodgett undertook to 
build a hotel from the proceeds of a lottery. He suc- 
ceeded, and, according t(^ a report ])ublishe(l in the 
Washiyii^tou (ia.'^ctfc at the time, was about the only 
l)eneficiary of the drawings. The completed building 

26 



PV ASH I N GTO N OLD AND N E IV 

seems to have been almost as much of a fraud as the 
proprietor, for it soon collapsed. 

Many descriptions of the Washington of that day 
have been handed down to us. Thomas Moore, the 
Irish poet, wrote one in 1804, which aptly epitomizes 
those written in 1800, the year when the seat of Gov- 
ernment was formally transferred from Philadelphia 
to Washington, as follows : 

"This embryo capital where fancy sees 
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees ; 
Which second-sighted seers, even now, adorn 
With shrines unbuilt, and heroes yet unborn, 
Though naught but woods and Jefferson they see, 
Where streets should run and sages ought to be." 




27 



CHAPTER II 

(Thr Maril|tnitt0u nf Antr-Srllum Daijii 

LITTLE does the average person who justly 
glories in the beauties and wonders of Wash- 
ington of today realize what a hopeless look- 
ing and disgusting spot it was in October, 1800, when 
President John Adams and his practical and literary 
spouse, Abigail, arrived there by stage coach and took 
up their abode at the new marble mansion, known 
these hundred years and more as the White House. 
Old John Randolph, of Roanoke, has likened it unto 
"the great Serbonian bog." Daniel Carroll's ancestral 
acres covered the major portion of Capitol Hill and 
the lots into which he was subdividing them were held 
at such prohibitive figures that many homebuilders 
were being forced into the lowlands, where David 
r.urns and Notley Young, a retired English sea-captain. 
were literally doing a "land office business" in what is 
now known as the northwest section of the city. The 
disgust of Cabinet officers and Congressmen at leav- 
ing Philadelphia, where the Capital had been located 
for ten years, for such a place is reflected in their 
diaries and in newspaper articles published at the time. 
It is well to explain here that had Major Peter 
Charles L'Enfant been allowed to keep secret his plan 
of the city until the sites of the Capitol, Executive Man- 
sion and other pu]:)lic buildings in immediate contem- 
plation had all been located and the avenues and cross 
streets laid out. much of this confusion and unprepar- 
edncss could have been avoided. lie foresaw the 

28 



li ' A S II I X G T () X () L n . / A' D X E 11' 

activities of land l)oomers and other "get-rich-quick" 
men and resolved to keep secret as far as possible all 
desired information. Only Major Andrew Ellicott, 
who was assisting him as surveyor or geographer, 
knew exactly what was being done. In 1792 the three 
District Commissioners ordered L'Enfant to submit 
his plan to them in order that it might be engraved 
and published for the benefit of those intending to buy 
lots at the Government sales. Having arranged a cer- 
tain system of construction and having allowed no one 
to deviate from it in the least, even having gone to the 
length of tearing down a house which was being 
erected across an avenue, he felt that he would be un- 
true to himself and to his trust if he were to obey such 
an order. So President Washington dismissed him 
March i, 1792. Upon the recommendation of Thomas 
Jefferson, by direction of the President, that he "should 
have no cause of discontent," the Commissioners no- 
tified L'Enfant that they had ordered five hundred 
guineas ($2,500) paid to him. He promptly declined 
the money and retained the original draft of his plan 
to the day of his death, June 4, 1824. at Dudley 
Digges's Chilhun Castle estate, near Bladensburg, Md. 
This draft is in the office of the architect of the Capi- 
tol, torn and dingy and yellow with age. Ellicott suc- 
ceeded L'Enfant, followed out his ideas, which he knew 
by heart, making- only a few minor changes, and his 
plan, engraved by Thackara and Wallace, of Philadel- 
phia, in 1792, was published in this country and Eu- 
rope. Hence the 'land sharks" and chaos. The rec- 
ords show that grasping and visionary owners on the 
one hand and those rapacious and often unscrupulous 
speculators on the other frequently caused President 
Washington to retire to Mount \^ernon in disgust. He 

29 



JJ' A S H I X G T O \ OLD A \ D X E W 

dealt with these people direct in many instances, and 
on one occasion the vulgar David Burns, in reply to 
an argument in favor of transferring certain lands to 
the Government, said: "I suppose, Mr. President, you 
think the people are going to take grist from you as 
pure grain; but what would you have been if you had 
not married the rich widow Custis?" 

There was great commotion in the "mudhole" and 
on "the hill" when, one morning in ( )ctober, 1800, a 
little ''packet sloop/' bringing the records and furniture 
of the departments and some of the officials, dropped 
anchor in the l^otomac. Practically the entire popu- 
lation of the city gathered on the riverbank and in- 
dulged in an hysterical welcome. President and ]\Irs. 
Adams, Secretary of State John Marshall, Secretary 
of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of War 
Samuel Dexter and Secretary of the X^avy Benjamin 
Stoddert arrived b}- stage from 1 Baltimore the follow- 
nig day. They found the executive mansion ready for 
occupancy, the buildings for housing the executive de- 
partments nearly completed, and one wing of the Capi- 
tol ready for the Congress, which was to begin its ses- 
sion in a few weeks. Abigail Adams promptly dubbed 
Washington the "Wilderness City." 

"Those who had opposed its location were merry 
over 'its exceedingly mean and disgusting appear- 
ance,' " says Stilson Hutchins in his "The National 
Capitol," "apparently forgetting that Congress had 
given scant aid to the Commissioners in the work of 
construction, and had left them to depend for money 
almost entirely on chance gifts and the proceeds of the 
land sales. 

"When one reads the records of the vexatious de- 
lays in erecting the public buildings and improving the 

30 



JJ' ASH I X G T O X OLD A X D N E IV 

highways for lack of means, of the quarrels among 
those in authority, of the jealousy and opposition con- 
stantly displayed, the wonder is not that the capital 
city was a mean, dismal place in 1800 and only fit to 
be the laughing stock of the country, but that its 
builders should have been able in the face of the obsta- 
cles they encountered to make it bear the slightest sem- 
blance to a city." 

From 1800 to 181 5 was a critical period for the new 
city. Many even in official life were skeptical as to its 
future, the anticipated rapid growth was not material- 
izing, failures as a result of feverish speculations in 
town lots and of erecting buildings beyond the de- 
mands of business were numerous and scandalous. 
There was a general desire that the whole scheme 
should be abandoned. Removal to any of a dozen 
places would have been heartily welcomed. The Ameri- 
can people were apparently indifferent to their capital 
city. They simply refused to be interested in its build- 
ing or in the proper conduct of its local affairs. How 
often have they been charged in more recent years 
with being just as apathetic ! That the population in- 
creased from 8,208 in 1810 only to 13,474 in 1820 was 
exasperating to the optimistic friends of the city. Jur- 
isdiction over the District of Columbia, which included 
the present District and what is now Alexandria City, 
Va., and contained the separate cities of Washington, 
Georgetown and Alexandria, was formally assumed by 
Congress in 1801. Washington was incorporated in 
1802 and the President was empowered to appoint its 
Mayor, the people being allowed to elect only the Coun- 
cil. This plan caused much dissatisfaction. So a few 
years later Congress transferred to the Council and to 
the people the right to elect the Mayor. No further 

31 



IV AS H I N G T O X OLD A \ D N E JV 

material change in the municipal form of government 
was made until 1871, when the city charter was re- 
pealed and a territorial form of government was es- 
tablished. 

Yet this was the Washington of Thomas Jefiferson, 
of James and Dolly Madison, of James Monroe, of 
Henry Clay in the prime of his brilliant career, of 
Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, of John Ran- 
dolph, and of the early political days of Daniel Web- 
ster and John C. Calhoun. It was the W^ashington of 
strife and trials for the young republic — those were 
really days of beauty, of wit and chivalry — and of 
a genuine Democracy. 

By far the most authentic "account of the capital of 
that period is to be found in a small book written by 
Jonathan Eliott eighty years ago. In part, he says : 
''President Jefferson did much to further the prosperity 
of the city by procuring grants of money for carrying 
on the public buildings ; he also gave encouragement 
to all the improvements brought forward during his 
administration. He caused Pennsylvania Avenue to 
be opened and planted with trees. President Madison 
was also friendly to the city, but owing to the restric- 
tions on commerce and the subseciuent war during his 
administration little progress was made in the public 
works. But it \vas in the administration of President 
Monroe that the most extensive and valuable improve- 
ments were made in every part of the city, and the 
public money expended on the national works with 
the greatest liberality." 

It is interesting to look over the files of the Xatio}iaI 
Intelligencer, the leading newspaper of that period. 
We learn that the Great Hotel, erected in 1793 by 
Samuel Blodgett on the square now occupied by the 

32 



WASH I N GTO i\ OLD A N D X E IV 

General Land Office, was a popular abiding place for 
a few years, but following the disastrous failure of its 
owner, was supplanted in public favor by the "Little 
Hotel" and the Metropolitan Hotel, whose name was 
changed in 1820 to "Indian Queen." The latter was 
conveniently located on Pennsylvania Avenue and was 
a favorite resort with Congressmen. The fame of 
Jesse Brown, the genial proprietor, became interna- 
tional. We learn also from the National Intelligencer 
that Washington was the scene of much pleasant social 
activity, which seems to have been of a most demo- 
cratic nature. "The inhabitants are social and hospita- 
ble, and respectable strangers, after the slightest intro- 
duction, are invited to dinner, tea, balls and evening 
parties." 

Naturally, the overshadowing local event of the first 
twenty years of the City of Washington's existence as 
the capital of the Nation, was the burning of the White 
House and the Capitol building August 24, 1814, by 
the British. The visit of the enemy was not wholly 
unexpected, but it threw the high officials into a state 
of panic just the same. News that British troops had 
been landed on the banks of the Patuxent River and 
were marching across Maryland to the capital was 
received by courier and preparations to evacuate the 
city, with only a show of resistance, were promptly 
made. First reports were that the enemy was 16,000 
strong. On August 21, President Madison, accompa- 
nied by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the 
Navy, joined General Winder, who commanded about 
3,000 American troops and was encamped at Wood's, 
a point to the southeast of the city. The following day 
they returned to see that all books and papers of the 
department were sent away and that all citizens left 

33 



l!\l S II I \ C T O X O L I) A \ L) X 111 I' 

the place. Winder's troops gave battle to the British 
at Bladensburg, five miles out of Washington, but were 
soon put to rout, fleeing in all directions. The enemy 
encountered real opposition, however, from a few hun- 
dred sailors with cannon commanded by Commodore 
Joshua Barney, a privateersman, who were holding a 
hill near the city. In due time they, too, were put to 
llight and their commander, l^adly wounded, was cap- 
tured. 

So easy was the entrance to W'ashington that Gen- 
eral Ross and his British troops seemed to regard the 
excursion from the Patuxent as a sort of schoolboys' 
prank. Arriving at the Capitol grounds early in the 
evening of the 24th, they fired into the windows of the 
building and then marched into the House of Repre- 
sentatives wing. Troops filled the chamber. Admiral 
Cockburn, commander of the naval force, was escorted 
to the chair by General Ross. He rapped for order and 
shouted: "Shall this harbor of Yankee Democracy be 
burned? .Ml for it say aye!" The response was unan- 
imous and the approval uproarious. Then the shout 
went u]K "Fire the building." Ross gave the order. 
All i)apers, lx)oks, pictures and other combustible ma- 
terials were heaped on the floor in the center of the 
Mall and a lighted torch applied. The flames spread 
rapidly. When the ruin of the beautiful building was 
complete the troops proceeded to the Executive Man- 
sion to continue their job of destroying the seat of 
government. 

Dolly -Madison remained at the White House until 
after the Battle of r)ladensburg. The President sent 
messages to her, advising her to Hee to a place of safety. 
On receiving his message, August 24, between 2 and 3 
P. M.. she ordered sent away in a wagon silver plate 




DOLLY MADISON 



JVA SHIX GT O X OLD A X D N E JV 

and many other valual^les to be deposited in the Bank 
of Maryland at BaUimore. Then she turned her at- 
tention to the full length portrait of George Washing- 
ton, painted by Stuart. Finding the process of un- 
screwing the massive frame from the wall too cumber- 
some, she ordered it broken to pieces, and then person- 
ally removed the canvas. J. G. Barker and R. G. L. 
De Peyster, two visitors from New York, entered the 
room at this juncture. As the picture lay on the floor, 
they heard troops approach. 

"Save that picture," ordered the fascinating Dolly. 
"Save it if possible; if not possible, destroy it; under 
no circumstances allow it to fall into the hands of the 
British." 

President Madison had arrived. Mrs. Madison 
snatched up the engrossed original of the Declaration 
of Independence, hastened to the carriage and drove 
with her husband and her sister to a refuge beyond 
the Potomac. Barker and De Peyster joined the re- 
treating army and left the picture at a farm house. It 
was returned to Mrs. Madison a few weeks later and 
now hangs in the Blue Room of the White House. 
The Declaration of Independence is carefully pre- 
served, in a glass case, at the State Department. The 
destruction of the Executive Mansion was practically 
complete, only a part of the walls being left standing. 
It was not rebuilt until 181S. 

On the day following these awful depredations, the 
British troops robbed and burned stores and dwellings 
at will. They destroyed the workshop in the Navy 
Yard, the fort at Grenleaf's, and would doubtless have 
left not even a shanty standing had they not received 
a report that night that a large force of American 
troops was about to enter the city. This caused them 

37 



1'}' ASH I X G T O X OLD A \ I) X E IT 

to retreat post haste, every man for himself, to Marl- 
boro. A few (lays later they went aboard their ships 
and sailed away to the Chesapeake I'ay and safety. 

For some time following- this remarkable and hu- 
miliating occurrence, it looked as if nothing could pre- 
vent the removal of the National Capital farther inland 
or at least to some point where it would be better pro- 
tected against a foreign foe. Advocates of new centers, 
even of a few west of the Alleghanies, were especially 
active in their efforts to secure it. They fought hard, 
doing everything they could think of to prevent ajipro- 
priations for the restoration of the public buildings. 
In February, 1815, however. Congress passed a bill 
authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to borrow 
$500,000 for the purix)se. That settled the matter for 
all time. Land boomers became active again, but there 
was also j^lenty of legitimate private enterprise, an^l 
in the next decade Washington increased materially in 
])()l)ulation and in beauty. The better understanding 
with the liritish, as a result of (General Andrew Jack- 
son's successful termination of the war, seemed to in- 
spire the Capital and Xation alike with a hope and a 
confidence which had never before been evident. As 
was inevitable, the city rapidly became a center of 
wealth and fashion. 

Second in social and political importance only to the 
burning of the Capitol and the White House was the 
two weeks' visit of General, the Marquis de Lafayette, 
which began Tuesday, October 12, 1824. Me drove 
through the cit\' in a barouche drawn by four white 
horses, which were led by grooms in white li\ery. 
Many military companies, civic societies, etc., formed 
a parade more than two miles long. On the line of 
march the distinguished warrior was met by 2^ ])eauti- 

38 







2 > 



-' b 



JJ' A S H I N GT O X OLD A \ D \ E W 

fill maidens attired in white muslin and blue scarfs, 
their heads decorated with wreaths of red flowers. 
They were supposed to represent the 24 States of 
which the Union was at the time composed and the 
District of Columbia. At the Capitol, Henry Clay, 
then Speaker of the House of Representatives, greeted 
him ; President Monroe showed him marked distinc- 
tion at the White House. Many and brilliant were 
the entertainments given in honor of Lafayette. Xot 
more than two decades ago there resided in Washing- 
ton a number of persons who remembered them vividly 
and were wont to describe them- 

"During the early month of 1829 an affair at Wash- 
ington, known as the Eaton scandal, created much 
public excitement," says Henry William Elson in his 
"History of the United States." "This matter would 
not merit the notice of serious history but for the per- 
manent effect it had upon the Administration. Many 
years before this time a William O'Neal had kept a 
tavern at Washington, and his house became the lodg- 
ing place of many Government officials. Among the 
boarders was Senator John H. Eaton from Tennessee. 
O'Neal had a daughter, a witty young beauty, known 
over the city as Peggy O'Neal. She was quite free 
with the inmates of her father's house, and especially 
with Mr. Eaton — until the gossips were set going and 
her name became tainted. At length Peggy O'Neal 
married a Mr. Timberlake, of the navy, but he died 
by suicide in the Mediterranean ; and in January, 1829, 
Eaton, who was still in the Senate, married the widow. 
Mrs. Eaton now set out to gratify the ambition of her 
life — to become a leader in Washington society. But 
her former history was exhumed and most of the ladies 
of the city refused to recognize her. This VN-as the 

41 



Il\l S H I X G T O \ O L I) A \ D \ E U' 

state of affairs when Jackson arrived in the city. Eaton 
had been one of his chief campaign niana,s^ers and the 
O'Xeals had a warm place in Jackson's heart, as he 
also had been their guest while serving in the Senate 
a few years before- 

''Remembering the slanders against his own wife, 
now deceased, believing Mrs. Eaton to be innocent and 
])elieving also that the gossip alx)Ut her was inspired 
by Henry Clay with the object of ruining her husband, 
Jackson determined to espouse the cause of the Eatons. 
He appointed Mr. Eaton to his Cabinet and did every- 
thing in his power to clear the name of his wife and to 
give her a standing in society. He wrote scores of 
letters, he called Cabinet meetings, he attended stately 
dinners — all for Mrs. Eaton. But the women who held 
the key to the inner sacred circle declined to open the 
door to yirs. Eaton. General Jackson now practically 
informed the members of his Cabinet that their polit- 
ical fortunes depended on the recognition by their 
wives of Mrs. Eaton ; but these men were powerless ; 
their waives simply refused, and that was the 'end of it.' 
Even the President's niece, the mistress of t^e \¥hite 
House, made a stand. 'Anything efee,^^rlr, T ^^kdo 
for you, but I cannot call on Mrs. ^^^^^ ' Jj^^Vgo 
back to Tennessee, my dear,' said t^^^^B^^^^nd 
she went back to Tennessct^^jfc^^^^^^^^^o^X'ew 
( )rleans, the old iron w^^^^^^^|pB^m^\ er known 
defeat in battle, was conii^^^^^teai^l by the wo- 
men- The Cabinet was now inharmonious in the ex- 
treme, and after hanging together till the spring of 
1 83 1, it broke to pieces and a new Cabinet was formed. 

"Aside from disrupting the Cabinet, the Eaton scan- 
dal had another and still more marked effect on Ameri- 
can history. It Imilt the fortunes of the Secretary of 

42 




ANDREW JACKSON 



IV ASHI N GTO X L D A X D X E IV 

State. ]\Iartin \'an Buren was at this time a widower 
and without daughters, and he could well afford to 
give his energies to the cause that was so dear to his 
chief. He called on Mrs. Eaton; he arranged balls 
and dinners for her; he spoke of her virtue in every 
social circle; he sought out the British and Russian 
ministers, both bachelors, and secured their aid in 
pushing Mrs. Eaton to the front. And he succeeded, 
not in having her recognized in Washington society, 
but in intrenching himself in the heart of General Jack- 
son. Never from this moment was there a break be- 
tween the two, though as unlike they were as winter 
and balmy spring. It was soon after this time that 
Jackson decided to name Van Buren as his choice for 
the Presidential succession, and his decision was final, 
for his party was all powerful, and he swayed the party 
as Jefferson had done thirty years before." 

From 1820 to i860 the city of Washington was badly 
governed and was still far from pleasing to look upon. 
It was the Washington of John Marshall and Roger 
B. Tanev, of 'Tippecanoe (Harrison) and Tyler, too," 
of Thomas H. Benton and James K. Polk, of Buchanan 
and Breckinridge, but it was not yet a comfortable 
abiding place. The following description from "The 
National Capital," by Stilson Hutchins and Joseph 
West Moore, tells in a nutshell what conditions were : 

"A writer draws this picture of society: The first 
things that strikes a stranger is the affectation of style 
and fashion which seems to pervade almost every rank 
and class. The President opens his drawing room 
every fortnight for reception of such as may please to 
visit him ; and his Cabinet secretaries give dinners and 
evening parties during the session of Congress. The 
subordinate officers of the Government, clerks, etc., 

45 



//• . / .V // / A' (; T O X O L D A \ D A E W 

also follow the cxami)le, and although their sala- 
ries are small and their means limited, the}' fancy 
it would be un])ardonable not to ape those above them 
and be what is called fashionable, and thus they plunge 
into the vortex of ruin. The)' give evening parties. 
])ay morning xisits with cards, in their own carriages, 
or any they can procure, give routs, go to assemblies, 
and. in short, exhibit every folly their superiors think 
proper to practice because it is said to be haut ton and 
they cannot think of being mifashionable, whatever 
may be the result. 

"Every one who lived in what was called the 'court 
<i\uV of the city kept a carriage of some kind, and it 
was said 'many persons w^ould even ride to church 
when the distance was not more than a hundred paces." 
^Members of Congress were in great request for all the 
parties, and the prominent ones could not accept half 
the invitations they received. Outside of its fashion- 
able life, however, the city w^as apparently in 'a long 
dead calm of fixed repose,' and its development year 
by year \vas ver\' slow. It was not until 1830 that 
Pennsylvania Avenue, the central thoroughfare, was 
])a\e(l, and then it was done cheaply and badly. There 
were onl\' two siuall pul:)lic schools. On August 25, 
1835, tile Washington branch of the Baltimore and 
( )hio Railroad was opened, but it was as late as 185 1 
that stages to the West ceased to run. In 1836 the 
Long liridge across the Potomac to \ irginia was 
o])ene(l, and has continued in use tt) the present day- 
It was constructed at a cost of $100,000 and is a mile 
ill length. 

"In 1840 the city had 23.364 peo])le. ( )n the Tst of 
]\larch. 1844, a terrible catastroohe occurred. A large 
party of officials and prominent residents visited the 

40 



ir AS H I X GT O X O L D A X D \ E JV 

warship 'Princeton,' lying off Alexandria, and sailed in 
her a short distance down the river. Cn the return 
trip a cannon burst while being fired, killing Secretary 
of State Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Gilmer, and 
three other persons, and seriously injuring eighteen 
others. From 1840 to 1850 the gain in population was 
nearly 17,000; from 1850 to i860, over 21,000. The 
census of the latter years shows a population of 61,222, 
and in the entire District of Columbia, 75,080. Wash- 
ington entered upon the tryins: years of the Civil War 
a verv unattractive place. Those who had business 
with the Government came to the city, looked with sur- 
prise and contempt at its muddy, unpaved streets and 
rude, insignificant private buildings, and went away as 
soon as possible. It was a capital sprawling over a 
great territory, but remarkable only for its distances 
and discomforts and its listless dailv life." 




47 



CHAPTER III 

Waiilitniitiin Suriujgi auit AftiT tbr (Etuil fflar 

ALL IMPRESSIONS of hasty travel are neces- 
sarily chaotic, but it must be admitted that 
Charles Dickens, who did not see the 
"States" as a normal traveler does, had formed a pretty 
accurate estimate of our national capital on his first 
visit to the United States. 

In his "American Notes" he gives a description of 
the Federal City in 1842, which truthfully applies 
twenty years later: 

"It is sometimes called the City of ]^Iagnificent Dis- 
tances, but it might with greater propriety be termed 
the City of Magnificent Intentions, for it is only on 
taking a bird's-eye view of it from the top of the Capi- 
tol, that one can at all comprehend the vast designs of 
its projector, an aspiring Frenchman. Spacious ave- 
nues, that begin in nothing, and lead nowhere ; streets, 
miles long, that want houses, roads and inhabitants ; 
pu1)lic l)uildings that need but a public to be complete ; 
and ornaments of great thoroughfares which lack only 
great thoroughfares to ornament — are its leading fea- 
tures. ■•' '-^ '^ It has no trade or commerce of its 
own ; having little or no population beyond the Presi- 
dent and his establishment ; the members of the legis- 
lature who reside there during the session ; the Gov- 
ernment clerks and officers employed in the hotels and 
boarding-houses ; and the tradesmen who supply their 
tables- 

"Few people would live in Washington, I take it, 
who were not obliged to reside there, and the tides of 

48 



IVASHINGTOX OLD AXD X E JV 

emigration and speculation, those rapid and regardless 
currents, are little likely to flow at any time towards 
such dull and sluggish waters." 

While Dickens is represented as viewing America 
with ill nature, coldness, or even animosity, it cannot 
be denied that the picture he gives of the City of Wash- 
ington at the time of his tour of our country is sub- 
stantially correct. 

In ''Bentley's Miscellany" for 1861 appeared an arti- 
cle entitled 'The Federal City of Washington," by J. 
G. Kohl, evidently a foreigner. "The streets are miles 
in length and superfluously broad, and in the suburbs 
small cottages stand at wide intervals. Only in the 
center is there a more compact body, and the whole 
resembles a frame of Berlin woodwork in which the 
fair embroidress has made spasmodic attempts at com- 
mencement ^'' '^ * " 

"There is no state in the world which possesses pro- 
portionately so small, scantily populated, and shabby a 
capital as the American Union * * '■' Pennsylva- 
nia Avenue connects the House of Congress and the 
White House in a straight line, and is hence one of the 
principal arteries of circulation in the city. It was for 
a long time the only paved street in Washington, and, 
indeed, the majority of the streets are still without that 
useful article. During the rainy weather, consequently, 
the city is a swamp and the dry season constantly full 
of dust clouds. Along Pennsylvania Avenue are the 
principal shops, and hence it is the favorite, almost sole, 
promenade of the fair sex. "'= '■' "^ A little muddy 
stream, which in winter bears a little water along the 
base of the Capitol, but in summer is hardly liquid 
enough for geese, is called Tiber Creek. * ^ =^ 

49 



JV AS H I X GT O \ OLD A X D X E W 

"Washington is well provided with pleasant gardens, 
clumps of trees, alleys and flower beds. This circum- 
stance, and especially that of the long rows of trees 
accompanying the streets, gives the city a very pleasant 
aspect and it looks like a large rural village. The 
prettiest gardens and public places are around the 
White House or the Mansion, as it is called in the 
higher and of^cial style- '■' * * During spring, 
which often begins here in February w^ith the pleasant- 
est day and the mildest air, the city assumes an almost 
idyllic garb. 

"The kine pasture in the streets, the bull frogs croak 
and roar in the side lanes. The birds of passage twitter 
in all the trees and the humniing birds flash around 
every flower. '=' '•' "*' A portion of the Washington 
street p<:)pulation consists of negroes, both free and 
slaves. '^ '^ * On Sunday the city appears almost 
entirely to belong to the negroes, for on that day they, 
and especially their wives, or, as they call them, 'ladies,' 
parade in the most elegant costumes, the most glaring 
colors, the broadest crinolines, rustling in silks, and 
most closely imitating the white ladies and gentlemen." 

The following is an extract from a paper by Mrs. 
Mary E. W. Sherwood, appearing in "Lippincott's 
Magazine," in August, 1894: 

'Tt was a straggling mudhole in winter, but when 
spring came it was as beautiful (in spots) as it is now, 
and it had a gentler climate than at present. I have 
picked roses in January in Mrs. Seaton's garden. 

"Mrs. Fremont, her sister Sue Benton, some pretty 
girls named Smith, the gifted nieces of Madame Cal- 
(leron, the beautiful ^Jrs. Barton Key; in fact, all our 
neighbors, on summer evenings would run about to 

50 



JV AS H 1 N GT O X OLD AX D N E W 

visit each other without bonnets. People sat on door- 
steps and I have often seen a set of intimates walk up 
Pennsylvania Avenue to the old Capitol grounds, at- 
tended by Senators and secretaries, with their heads 
bare, at seven o'clock on a fine summer evening-" How 
delightful the informality characterizing the social in- 
tercourse of fifty years ago ! 

Could Kohl or some other of his foreign contempo- 
ries revisit the Capital city today, they would find much 
in Pennsylvania Avenue to remind them of the past, 
but in the magnificent city spreading gracefully out be- 
fore them in strict ciuiformity with the plans of the 
gifted L'Enfant they would detect nothing to suggest 
the "straggling mudhole" of the 6o's. 

To properly understand the growth of the city it is 
but necessary to reflect that its population fifty years 
ago was only about one-fourth of what it is at the 
present day; there was no municipal improvement of 
any importance ; everything was neglected in the "all 
absorbing -question of slavery and the fate of the 
Union." The muddy streets, now w^ell paved avenues, 
resounded to the tramp of marching troops ; where now 
are the homes of the rich were then the hovels of the 
poor : the beautiful parks and government reservations 
of today were then used as camps and barracks ; frown- 
ing torts "with bristling guns broke through the ver- 
dure of the adjacent fields and crowned the hills on 
either side of the Potomac." 

Small chance was there at the close of the war or in 
the next few succeeding years for formulating a plan 
for municipal improvement. Washington was a disor- 
ganized, hopeless and disrupted community. 

Although at the commencement of the Capitol in 
185 1 the city began to show some signs of substantial 

51 



IV A S II / -V G T O X O L P . / A' D \ n IT 

prosperity, it was not until the year i^/2 that it l)ei;an 
to afiford an evidence of its subsequent strength and 
greatness. Washington surely needed a shock of awak- 
ening. The agitation for the change of the seat of 
government was as great at the close of the Civil War 
as it had been after the burning and invasion by the 
British in 1814. Sixty years after that time the city 
was still in an unfinished state ; the Capitol was incom- 
plete ; the White House was out of repair ; the streets 
were mainly swamps, and there was a general despond- 
ency about the site. 

The timely impetus to civic awakening was given in 
rather an amusing waw "A ^ed bearded, crippled, 
Quilpish-looking man, of St. Louis, Missouri, by name 
"Mr. L. O. Reavis, with a certain sense of resistance 
about him and an uncertain sense of reformation took 
It in his head that St. Louis had been slighted and ought 
CO be the Capital of the Government. He had a simple 
nature, a love of circulation and public consideration, 
and some hopes of authorship. Perfectly honest, al- 
ways approachable, ahvays approaching, loose and con- 
tinuous in argument, striking high for eminent atten- 
tion, and carrying acquaintance by the assiduity with 
which he cultivated it, Mr. Reavis tested to extremities 
the power of the unit of citizenship to upset the Capital 
city and drag it away. His ingenuities were all in the 
noblest nature of destructiveness. He had very little 
to proix)se in the way of reconstruction, and was indif- 
ferent whether the public edifice should be carried away 
piecemeal or abandoned to the unworthy people on the 
Potomac. r)Ut it happened at the moment that the 
strength of the dominant part in the West, the fever 
of change, the opening of the Pacific Railroad and 
other lines to the extreme frontier, and perhaps more 

52 




ALEXANDER R. SHEPHERD 



WASHINGTON O L D A N D NEW 

than all the rising agitation on the subject of free trade 
which the Western free traders hoped to settle in their 
favor by getting Congress amongst them, gave a noisy, 
and it was thought a favorable, celebrity to Mr. Reavis' 
scheme. Mr. Horace Greeley favored the removal in 
the Neiv York Tribune, and a convention or two were 
held in St. Louis. 

"The conservative sense, reverence and thrift of the 
nation prevailed, however, and Congress settled the 
question by voting a large sum of money to begin a 
grand State Department at Washington which should 
cost several millions. The city itself at its own expense 
put on a new apparel, and the national appropriations 
of 1872-3 were unusually generous and even excessive." 

With the advent of Alexander R. Shepherd upon the 
scene any further serious consideration of the change 
of the seat of government ceased. His was the master 
hand, his the directing force and energy controlling the 
new and greater Washington. 

Alexander R. Shepherd was a native of the District 
who had been fairly successful in a number of business 
enterprises. His building operations began timidly at 
first in 1865, but gradually increased in magnitude. He 
put up "several Philadelphia rows of brick houses ad- 
jacent to the old Duddington house of the Carrolls" 
and also built the first business structure of any conse- 
quence on Pennsylvania Avenue. President Grant was 
quick to recognize the zeal and ability of Shepherd, and 
was the first to take up in a large way the plans of 
Washington which had been developed by L'Enfant, 
but which had remained untouched for nearly three- 
quarters of a century, because of the neglect of the 
National Government. Former Commissioner Henry 
B. F. Macfarland, in one of his many interesting and 

55 



JJ\4 SHI X G T O X OLD A X D X E IV 

instructive addresses upon the National Capital, says : 
**He (Grant) helped Alexander R- Shepherd, the bright 
young Washingtonian, strong of frame and mind, to 
secure from Congress, which is the Supreme Legisla- 
tive authority for the District of Columbia, power to 
make real and actual the paper streets and avenues of 
Washington's plan, and Alexander R. Shepherd, the 
Commissioners and the Congress of the United States 
from the dusty map of this talented Frenchman im- 
pressed upon the marshes, upon the woodlands and on 
the hills its outline, and, out of the green earth arose 
the new Washington, as from the stroke of the en- 
chanter's wand." 

x\n enthusiastic writer has this to say about the 
improvements accomplished, and projected, during 
Grant's first administration : ''Washington changed 
character almost entirely after the war. Northern capi- 
tal moved in and fine architecture prevailed in private 
buildings. The very form of government was altered 
and a Board of Public Works took the paving of streets 
out of the hands of the local legislature. 

"The appropriations are now greater than they have 
ever been in the history of the city — far greater than 
when the place was first pitched here- They amount to 
about $3,000,000 direct this year, and nearly $2,000,000 
for public edifices. The Capitol edifice itself gets a 
snubbing, the architect being a shy man who had not 
learned the art of lobbying and could only state the 
necessity of repairs at least. But the great new renais- 
sance building for the State, War and Navy Depart- 
ments has received a lift which will cover it with stone- 
cutters as soon as spring opens ; a new statue of Gen- 
eral Thomas is ordered to cost $40,000, and the Farra- 
gut statue is taken out of the hands of the artists of the 

56 




WOODROW WILSON 



W ASH I N GT O \ OLD AX D X E IV 

lobby. In two years from this period, there will be six 
colossal statues in the streets of this city, five of them 
equestrian, Washington, Jackson, Scott, Grant, Thomas 
and Farragut, besides out-of-door statues of Lincoln, 
Scott and Washington. '•' * ''' Several new street 
railways are authorized and the building permits ap- 
plied for or granted show an extraordinary advance in 
construction, much of which is of a villa character in 
the suburbs. In May the whole line of the Baltimore 
and Potomac Road will be opened, as well as the new 
Brauch of the Baltimore and Ohio. And the ^Municipal 
Government has spent $8,300,000 in about eighteen 
months, according to its own report, and its opponents 
say $14,000,000, assessed upon nearly the full valuation 
of property." 

In view of the above use of the terms "lobby" and 
"lobbyist" and the fixed determination of President 
Wilson's administration to relegate both to the past, 
it is interesting to read the same writer's definition of 
them : "The word 'Lobby,' as anybody might guess, 
is derived from the part of the Capitol where people go 
who have objects to attain on the floors of Congress 
but not the right of access. In the Latin lobby signifies 
a covered portico — pit for walking, and in the Capitol 
at Washington the lobbies are long, lofty and lighted 
corridors completely enclosing both halls of legislation. 
One of the four sides of this lobby is guarded by a 
door-keeper, wdio can generally be seduced by good 
treatment or a douceur to admit people to his privacy, 
and in this darkened corridor the lobbyists call out 
their members and make their solicitations. 

"The lobby at Washington is referred to by the archi- 
tect Latrobe as early as 1806. He explains that 'the 
lobby of the House is so separated from it that those 

59 



IV ASH I N GTO X OLD AX D N E \V 

who retire to it cannot see and probably will not dis- 
tinctly hear what is going forward in it. This arrange- 
ment,' he says, 'has been made with the approbation of 
the President of the United States, and also under the 
advice of the Speakers of the two Houses at the time 
when the designs were made.' * '^ * 

"A lobbyist is an operator upon his acquaintance, his 
wits and his audacity. Your lobbyist may be an old 
man. whose experience, aplomb, suavity or venerable- 
ness may recommend him. He may be a strong man in 
middle life, who commands what he is paid for doing 
by a knowledge of his own force and magnetism. He 
may be an adroit young man, free of hollow profession, 
who dexterously leads his victim along from terrace to 
terrace of sentimentality, until that dell is reached 
where the two men become confederates, and may 
whisper the truth to each other." 

The type of character the writer had in mind has 
passed away. His departure may be said to have been 
synchronous with the disappearance of the old hotels 
of Washington. At the close of the war, dining played 
a great part in American politics. "The lobby man 
(lines the Representative ; the Representative dines the 
Senator : the Senator dines the charming widow, and 
the charming widow dines he^- coming man." The 
]:»()litician found Hancock's a place for his reed birds 
and mixed drinks ; Harvey's for oysters ; Chamberlin's 
for the best of everything in dining and good fellow- 
ship : and Wormley's for a quiet supper. Charles 
Dickens says W'elcker kept the best restaurant in the 
world. 

The ( )l(l W'illard Hotel enjoyed during and after the 
war a large ])atronage. Here is a fragment from a 
diary picked \\\) in its corridors man\- years ago: 

r.o 



JV AS HI N GTO N OLD A N D X E W 

"April 22, 1868 — Dear me, how tired ! I am in Wash- 
ington, the Capital of the United States. It's not 
larger than New York, my husband, Alonzo, says, 
which I think is a great shame. Government ought 
to make it bigger right away, or have it somewhere 
where it would get bigger, itself. The maps are all 
incorrect about Washington, where it is represented 
by a great many dots, while all the other towns have 
only one dot. We went to Willard's Hotel, and, in 
order to give us a fine view of the city, they put us 
up in the top story- We went down to breakfast at 
nine o'clock, and called for oysters, of course. They 
tasted as if they had been caught in warm water. The 
first shad was quite a bone to pick. My dear husband 
took a cocktail before breakfast. He says it's quite the 
thing here. Senator Tatterson joined him, he says. I 
hope my husband will never be a drunkard." ''N. B. — 
He says the Senator took his straight." 

At the breaking out of the Civil War the leading 
hotels on Pennsylvania Avenue were Brown's, Owen's, 
Mctoria, Henry Clay, Willard's, Kirkwood and Na- 
tional. Of these all save Brown's (now the Aletro- 
politan) and the National have disappeared. The 
Ebbitt House came into prominence during the war 
and acquired early a celebrity as the headquarters of 
the Army and Navy. Completely revivified and reha- 
bilitated, it retains today all of its old popularity and 
charm. 

George Alfred Townsend says of the Ebbitt in 
1872: 'Tt is now a very elegant mansion, six sto- 
ries high and of a bright, cheerful color, which 
lightens the spirits of the guests ; from every win- 
dow canopies of canvas depend to cool the interior 
through the summer; for this house, unlike several 

61 



ir A S H I S G T O X OLD AX D X E W 

in Washington, is kept open the whole year around. 
The taste of the proprietor, Caleb C. \\ illard, Esq., 
is displayed in the elegant French pavilions, and 
broken lines of the roof, and in the series of clas- 
sical window mouldings, which liken the establish- 
ment to the finer class of the public edifices. The 
new dining room (vide the present one) is made to 
include two entire stories in height, and the lofty 
ceiling is beautifully frescoed, while the windows 
are given nearly the loftiness of the hall, thus bath- 
ing the apartment in the excjuisite light of this lati- 
tude. Beneath the dining room is the historic line 
of offices known over the wdiole coutry as 'Xews- 
pa])er Row.' The newspaper correspondents had 
pitched upon this block before a hotel was devised, 
on account of its immediate proximity to the tele- 
graph ofiices, the 1Ve:isury, all the lines of city com- 
munication, and as it was centrally situated to the 
White House and the great departments. '•' * * 

'Tn this house have put u]) nearly all the emi- 
nent sailors and soldiers of the country : Rogers. 
Farragut, AWorden, Canby, Thomas, Porter, \\'ins- 
low, Boggs, Case, Drayton and the rest." 

Brief as is this description, it gi\es a fair idea of 
what the Ebbitt was ; what it is is best attested by 
its esta1)lished ]]osition in the forefront of American 
hotels of today. 

Xo story of \\'ashington is complete without men- 
tion of the Xational, the first hotel building of large 
dimensions erected in the city; and indissolubly con- 
nected with the nation's historw It has well with- 
stood the test of time, and today enjoys a large and 
country-wide jK^jiularity. It was built about 1827. 
In suite known as 17 and iS I lenry Clay died ; Alex- 

62 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

ander Stephens occupied these rooms when a mem- 
ber of Congress. In the Civil War the Supreme 
Court of the United States lived at the National ; 
and from then until now it has been the home of 
men prominent in all walks of life. 

Through the courtesy of Mr. G. F. Schutt, pro- 
prietor of the Ebbitt and National Hotels, the writer 
is enabled to publish the following: 

''The Hon. E. G. Spaulding, member of Congress 
from New York, gave a private dinner party Thurs- 
day evening, February 28, 1861, at the National 
Hotel, to the President (Abraham Lincoln) and 
Vice-President-elect. 

"The following invited guests were present : Lieu- 
tenant-General Winfield Scott, Commander of the 
Army; Edward Bates, of Missouri; Caleb B. Smith, 
of Indiana; Salmon P. Chase, Senator from Ohio; 
Judge Ira Harris, of New York; AVm. E. Dodge, a 
member of the Peace Congress of 1861 ; Thurlow 
Weed, New York journalist; General Alexander S. 
Webb ; Judge David Davis, from Illinois ; Wm. H. 
Seward, Senator from New York ; Simon Cameron, 
Senator from Pennsylvania ; Preston King, Senator 
from New York ; John J. Crittenden, Senator from 
Kentucky ; John P. Hale, Senator from New Hamp- 
shire ; Zachariah Chandler, Senator from Michigan ; 
E. B. Washburn, member Congress from Illinois; 
H. Winter Davis, M. C, from Maryland ; W. Pen- 
nington, M. C, from New Jersey; John Sherman, 
M. C, from Ohio; Charles Francis Adams, M. C, 
from Massachusetts ; J. A. Farley, M. C, from Ohio. 
Before leaving the hotel, the President accepted an 
invitation to visit the ladies' parlor, w^here he re- 

65 



WASHINGTOX OLD AXD NEW 

ceived a hearty welcome from the lady guests of the 
hotel. 

"Many of the names above became noted during 
the great crisis which Mr. Lincoln was about to 
enter. The following went into his Cabinet: Wm. 
H. Seward, Secretary of State ; Simon Cameron, 
Secretary of War; Edward Bates, Attorney- Gen- 
eral ; Caleb B. Harris was elected United States 
Senator in 1861, and it was his daughter wdio, with 
Major Rathbone, of the army, accompanied Mr. and 
Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theatre on the night of April 
14,^1865. 

"Believing this to be an interesting item, I cheer- 
fully present it to the Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial 
collection for preservation. 

"(Signed) G. F. Schutt, Manager, 

National Hotel. 

"National Hotel, Dec. 28, 1904." 

'How a famous hotel advertised in 1828 is enter- 
tainingly set forth in the Louisville Public Advertiser: 

NATIONAL HOTEL 
WASHINGTON CITY. 

"This spacious and extensive building, believed to 
be one of the largest hotels in the LTnited States 
(capable of accommodating two hundred persons), 
is now nearly finished and ready for the reception of 
the public. 

"As it has been expressly erected for a house of 
public entertainment, the plan of the building, to- 
gether with its interior arrangements and conveni- 
ences, are believed to be such as to give unixersal 
satisfaction and render its accommodations suj^erior 

66 



JJ^ A S HINGTO X OLD AND N ElV 

to what is generally met with. There are 80 single 
and 50 donble-bedded chambers, T2 ])arlors and 
drawing rooms, with a suitable number of very ex- 
cellent and comfortable family lodging rooms ad- 
joining, all of which are newly furnished in very 
handsome style, with separate entrance to that part 
of the house, which makes it as desirable for families 
as a private dwelling. 

"As the house is so extensive, and the expenses 
necessarily incurred in carrying on so large an estab- 
lishment must go on, the proprietor is determined, in 
order to encourage business, to reduce his charges to 
one dollar per day at the public table, to all persons 
who stop for a longer period than a week, and oc- 
cupy a room with more than one bed, and for a 
shorter period at the rate of one dollar and twenty- 
five cents per day. The charge for families Avill 
have a proportionate reduction. The stabling is ex- 
tensive and the charges for livery moderate. The 
liquors are of the best quality that can be procured, 
and the wines, some of which are very superior, he 
is enabled to sell at various prices from $1.00 to 
$3.50 per bottle. The proprietor will, as usuab do all 
in his power to render every accommodation to the 
patrons of the house and endeavor to make their 
stav with him as comfortable as possible. 

"JOHN GADSBY. 

"Washington, 19th Sept., 1828. 

"X. B. A stage and steamboat office is attached 

to the establishment, where passage can be taken to 
any part of the United States. 

"The following persons will please publish this 
advertisement twice a week for three weeks and ren- 

69 



WASHING! ON OLD AND NEW 

(ler their accounts to the subscriber for settlement: 

"The Boston Courier and Statesman, The Nezv York 
American and Enquirer, the Philadelphia National Ga- 
zette, American Sentinel, the Baltimore Gazette- 
Chronicle, the Richmond Enquirer, Norfolk Herald, 
Charlotte Mercury, New Orleans Courier, Nashville 
Republican, Cincinnati National Republican, Pittsburg 
Mercury." 

An old Washingtonian, Major \\'alter IJellen. 
writes : 

''What a great hotel the National used to be in by- 
gone days. It was here that Henry Clay resided 
when in Washington, and it was through its lobby I 
saw his body borne by his loving friends, who came 
from his native State to attend the obsequies and 
act as a guard of honor in bearing his remains from 
this city to their last resting place in Kentucky. 

"It was at this hotel James Buchanan stopped when 
he arrived in the city just previous to his inau- 
guration and before taking up his home in the White 
House. I was at the Baltimore and Ohio Station 
when he arrived in town. He was met at the train 
by a committee of about fifty men, who, after an 
exchange of greetings, marched in procession, with 
Buchanan at the head, down C to Four-and-a-half 
Street to the Avenue, thence to the hotel. A very 
short time after his inauguaration a terrible epi- 
demic of sickness broke out at the National, from 
v\])ich many died, causing a great sensation through- 
out the country, as it was thought by many that 
some enemies of Buchanan had tried to poison him." 

It appears to be true that Air. Buchanan had a 
narrow escape during his visit to Washington, the 

70 




. il 1 II.I- ^ '" - 



i 




o S 



^ CQ 



O .5 
H CIS 



fe. 



WASHINGTON OLD AN D __N_EW_ 

water of the National Hotel having been poisoned 
in an attempt to destroy the rats with arsenic. The 
vermin partook of it and then plunged into and died 
in a tank at the top of the house. 

Up to twenty years ago the National Hotel w^as 
the center of the city, whose trend to the westward 
has since been uninterrupted, without diminishing, 
however, the patronage or popularity of the hotel. 
It will be quite obvious to the reader that it is im- 
possible in a work of this scope to discuss all the 
features of Washington's marvelous growth from. 
1872 to this day. More than the usual space for 
description has been given the old National, because 
this, of the city's landmarks, seems to stand out the 
most conspicuously. 

Washington has changed more in the last fifty 
years than any American city ; it has more than quad- 
rupled its population with the best of the elements m 
all the States and Territories. 

'The development of the executive departments 
of the National Government, with the growth of the 
nation's business, and the great increase m the sci- 
entific work carried on by the nation, have drawn to 
VA'ashington many able men." - ^ * 

The presence of the President, the Cabinet, the 
Supreme Court, Congress, the Diplomatic Corps, the 
highest officers of the Army and Navy, the many 
eminent scientists and scholars, gives it a cosmopoli- 
tan character that is most attractive, and draws yis- 
itors in increasing numbers from all over the United 
States and Canada and many other countries. The 
healthful climate, which is also agreeable during the 
greater part of the year, the beauty, comfort, and 
convenience of the city, the exceptional interest of 

73 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

its life, etc., are among the things which make 
Washington almost ideal as a residence city. The 
good government of the District of Columbia with 
its admirable public school system, police and fire 
departments, and other municipal features, all free 
from the scandalous practices of blackmail and bri- 
bery, political favoritism and corruption, which stain 
so many American municipalities, may be mentioned 
as one of the reasons why most people like to live 
in Washington." 

''Before, she like some shepherdess did show, 
Who sat to bathe her by a river's side ; 
Not answering to her fame, but rude and low, 
Nor taught the beauteous arts of modern pride. 
Now, like a maiden queen, she will behold, 
From her high turrets, hourly suitors come ; 
The East with incense, and the West with gold." 



74 



CHAPTER IV 



an&Sta (grfat^PoiSStbtlmrB 



T 



HE Centennial celebration, in December, 1900, 
of the removal of the National Capital from 
Philadelphia to Washington forms an appro- 
priate landmark from which to estimate alike the 
present condition and prospective development ot 
the Federal Citv. Previous to the last decade of the 
19th centurv, anv such attempt, at least in the way 
of forecast, would have been misleading if not abso- 
lutelv fallacious. Up to the close of the Civil \\ ar, 
the location of the National Capital was, as has been 
set forth in previous chapters, always m doubt ; but 
even with its permanent existence secured bv the 
consecration of war, and the construction of the 
great railway systems, the political and material 
status of the citv was altogether uncertain. 

Twice within the period of ten years Congress had 
changed the form of government in the District. 
Under the liberalizing influence of the Civil \\ ar, 
the citizens of AA^ashington had been granted the 
privileges of territorial government \;^^^f ^^^'^ 
capable leadership of Alexander R. Shepherd they 
had paved their streets, drained the swamps with 
which the scattered portions of the city were inter- 
spersed, and established a fair system of sewage and 
water supply. Reaction, however, had set m against 



w 



IV ASH I N GTOiX OLD A X D N E IV 

this progressive policy. Shepherd was disavowed, 
the people were deprived of representation and a 
form of government by commission was established. 
But neither the disfavor of Congress nor the dis- 
couraging attitude of the residents of the District 
could restore the crudity or sluggish condition of 
ante-bellum times. Washington, moreover, had by 
this time been completely adopted by the nation, 
and was, moreover, caught up in a great wave of 
national prosperity which placed it upon a ground of 
vantage from which it could never be moved. The 
stimulating character of the war tariff and the vast 
consumption of wealth of which our citizens were 
the producers, had developed new industries in the 
country and vastly extended the old. These great 
instrumentalities of production — northern capital 
and northern experience — had extended to the great 
coal and iron fields, the forest preserves and agri- 
cultural resources of the South. The result was not 
only a tremendous increase of wealth, but, as a con- 
sequence of the rapidity of the transformation, this 
wealth as well as the industrial and commercial in- 
terests of the country which had produced it, were 
concentrated in the hands of a few individuals and 
corporations. The great mass of the population 
had little or no share in the swollen fortunes which 
seemed to spring up automatically; and, feeling 
themselves defrauded of their just part in the gen- 
eral prosperity, they sought under party leadership 
to attack the strongholds of capital and privilege, 
which by reason of the centralization incidental to 
the war, were ranged under the protection of the 
United States Government. The great corporate 
interests of the country instinctively realized that 

78 




JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 



JV ASH! N GTO K OLD AND N JllV 

in order to protect present gains or exploit futnrc 
possibilities they must secure representation in the Con- 
gress of the United States. So alert were they in 
adjusting themselves to existing conditions, that for 
the next twenty years the Senate was not inaptly 
named "a rich man's clulx" The chief beneficiary 
from this transformation was the city of Wash- 
ington. 

As the permanent home of a great number of 
wealthy Senators and Representatives, palatial resi- 
dences and hotels w^ere erected and surrounded by 
handsome grounds. Lavish appropriations for the 
extending and paving of streets and the acquisition 
and planting of new parks were made from year to 
year. Undertakings for securing adequate water sup- 
ply, drainage, sanitation, ornamentation and other ap- 
pliances of comfort and luxury far beyond those for 
which Shepherd had been exiled were sanctioned by 
an over-generous Congress. It was at this moment 
that the more enlightened citizens of the country, aided 
by their representatives in both Houses of Congress, 
resurrected the long forgotten p.^ans of L'Enfant and 
the ambitious dreams of Washington. The public had 
at last been educated up to an appreciation of their 
grandeur, and their approximate realization was a 
question onlv of time. The mistakes and ignorance 
of previous vears had left widespread then unsightly 
traces and rendered manv parts of the oriumal plans 
impossible. Nothing could restore the noble vistas 
which had been obscured, or transform the massing 
of public buildings and monuments regardless of pro- 
portion and svmmetrv. Opportunity enough, however 
remained to create a town of surpassing beauty ; and 
the artistic aspirations of a century crystallized m the 



81 



IV ASH IX GT K — - OLD A X D NEW 

centennial celebration, which witnessed the appoint- 
ment of a committee of the most celebrated architects 
and landscape gardeners of the country for the im- 
provement and ornamentation of the National Capi- 
tal. Under their direction a great driveway has been 
constructed to connect Rock Creek Park with the new 
Potomac Park reclaimed from the Potomac flats ; a 
similar plan has been devised for beautifying the Ana- 
costia flats. A large tract of land stretching from the 
new railway station to the Capitol has been acquired ; 
and an avenue of magnificent proportions extending 
from the west front of the Capitol to the Memorial 
Bridge and embracing on its way the Washington 
Monument and the Lincoln Memorial has been under- 
taken. 

Nor has expansion been permitted to rest with the 
extension of streets, the development of parks or the 
improvement of the river front. With the rapid in- 
crease of population and the stimulation of enterprise 
and civic spirit, the constitutionality of the retrocession 
of the early Virginia grant of 1846 has been called in 
question ; and the completion of the great Memorial 
Bridge will doubtless mark the rise of a sister city, on 
the south side of the Potomac, not yielding in beauty 
to the old. 

But it is not from the material and aesthetic or even 
the political side that we can best estimate the develop- 
ment of Washington. Upon purely intellectual and 
scientific lines the activities at the National Capital 
have been even more marked and significant. Here 
again the original initiative and inspiration were im- 
parted by George Washington, who, in his last will 
and testament, solemnly recommended to Congress the 
foundation of a Nati(~)nal University, to be not only a 

82 



WASHINGTOX OLD AND NEW 

cciUcr of scientitic and historical research, Init a train- 
ing school for young men in the science of govern- 
ment and the sentiment of patriotism. The sagacity 
of his admonition has been abundantly justified by all 
who persistently sought to realize it. 

The first in the field were the members of the Order 
of Jesuits, who, at the suggestion of Archbishop Car- 
roll, of Baltimore, the intimate and lifelong friend of 
Washington, attempted to fulfill, according to their 
point of view, the dying bequest of that great states- 
man by founding what has since become the George- 
town University, a prosperous school, with faculties 
of law and medicine and an alumni distinguished in 
every walk of life, among whom is the present Chief 
Justice of the United States- 
Only a few years later, inspired by a similar motive, 
a number of pious Baptist clergymen established the 
Columbian, now The George Washington University. 
Congress at this time manifested its approval of the 
undertaking by a valuable grant of lands. Statesmen 
and philanthropists, at home and abroad, generously 
responded with contributions, John Quincy Adams 
himself giving $7,000, besides the loan of a much 
larger sum. The subsequent history of the institution 
has been worthy of the distinguished auspices under 
which it was founded. It embraces schools of law, 
medicine, engineering, pedagogy and graduate studies, 
with a faculty of more than a hundred instructors and 
1,300 students. Under conditions of great sacrifice it 
duplicates its morning lectures and recitations, in the 
evening for the benefit of large numbers of young men 
who come to Washington from every state in the 
Union to secure the benefits of university training, 
while employed in the great administrative and scien- 

83 



JV ASH I N GT N OLD AND N E W 

tific bureaus of the United States Government. This 
institution thus carries out, even in a more Hberal 
sense, the intentions of George Washington, who 
hoped that young men thus gathered at the seat of the 
nation during the most formative period of their lives 
might share in the associations which would bind the 
separate states in a compact union and develop senti- 
ments of patriotism and respect for republican institu- 
tions. 

Advancing upon similar lines of thought, the trustees 
of the University have established a School of Political 
Sciences upon the model of the French "Ecole de Sci- 
ences Politique" where young men may be trained for 
the diplomatic and consular service as well as for po- 
litical life. This school, the first of its kind to be estab- 
lished in the country, has already been liberally subsi- 
dized and has earned for itself a most creditable rec- 
ord at home and abroad. Its faculty has, from time 
to time, numbered the most eminent men in the coun- 
try, in their respective specialties. Justice Brewer, of 
the United States Supreme Court, was Professor of 
International Law until his death ; Assistant Secretary 
David Jayne Hill, of the Department of State, taught 
Diplomatic Plistory until he was appointed to our diplo- 
matic service. Mr. James Brown Scott taught Consti- 
tutional Law in this school until he became Secretary 
of the Carnegie Peace Foundation ; while graduates 
from the school occupy positions in the American Em- 
bassies, Legations, or Consular Service in Europe. 
South America and Asia. 

Within the last decade two new university founda- 
tions, planned upon an even more ambitious scale, have 
been added to those already in existence, namely — the 
Catholic L'niversity of America and the Methodist or 

84 *" 



IV AS HI N G T O N OLD AND N E W 

American University. The former, organized by the 
late Pope Leo, with schools of philosophy, theology, 
natural and social sciences, law, jurisprudence and tech- 
nology, occupies a spacious park, studded with half a 
score 'of magnificent buildings adjoining the Soldiers' 
Home- Around it have sprung up, as if by magic, the 
foundations of the affiliated colleges of the Benedic- 
tines, the Dominicans, the Augustinians, the Paulists, 
the Holy Cross and Apostolic Missions. Not far dis- 
tant under the same auspices and drawing its teaching 
force from the University's staff, is Trinity College, 
established and endowed for the higher education of 
Catholic women. Together they form the culmination 
of the Catholic educat'ional system in the United States, 
embracing nearly five thousand parochial schools, eight 
hundred colleges and seminaries, and three universi- 
ties. 

The IMethodist denominations in the United States 
have arranged for a similar institution which shall 
bear the same relation to the Protestant sectaries that 
the Catholic University bears to the Roman hierarchy 
in the United States. ^ Two large structures, the col- 
lege of government and the college of history, have 
alreadv been erected and work has been arranged to 
begin with the completion of a prescribed endowment 
of $10,000,000. 

Meanwhile, private munificence has not failed to 
recognize the National Capital as a suitable place for 
the conduct of scientific research. In 1829, James 
Smithson, a natural son of the Earl of Northumber- 
land, bequeathed his entire fortune to the United States 
to found at Washington an institution ''for the increase 
and diffusion of knowledge among men." Long be- 
fore the bequest, which amounted to about $500,000, 



JVASHINGTOX OLD AND NEW 

became available, great opposition to its acceptance 
developed. Members of Congress, especially Calhoun, 
contended that it was beneath the dignity of the United 
States to accept presents from individuals ; others inti- 
mated that the testator sought immortality at far too 
moderate a price. It was finally accepted through the 
influence of John Quincy Adams, and the income upon 
the original amount, together with a generous appro- 
priation from Congress, forms the basis upon which 
researches for the past half century have been con- 
ducted and their results disseminated throughout the 
world. 

President Harper is reported to have said to Mr. 
Rockefeller, when they were casting about for a site 
of what afterwards became the University of Chicago : 
"Give me a million dollars and I will make a better 
university at Washington than can be made elsewhere 
for ten millions" ; meaning that the government ma- 
chinery, with its necessary and incidental accessories 
established at Washington, formed a university equip- 
ment greater than could be duplicated by the entire 
university endowment of any of the greatest universi- 
ties in the country ; and that it would only be necessary 
to appoint an adequate teaching force to call it into 
activity. Mr. Rockefeller, however, could not see be- 
yond the great commercial possibilities of Chicago. 

It was, therefore, left for Mr- Andrew Carnegie to 
exploit President Harper's idea and furnish a cap-stone 
to Washington's existing educational system by the 
establishment of an institution, unique not only in the 
munificence of its endowment, but also along the pecu- 
liar line of its administration. It is not a university, a 
school or a college. It conducts its work without lec- 
ture rooms, professors or libraries. It seeks rather to 

86 




ANDREW CARNEGIE 



IV A S H I X GT O X OLD A \ D \ E IV 

increase the efficiency of the existing institntions 
throughout the country by utiHzing and adding to their 
facihties ; and to enable such students as find Wash- 
ington the best place to conduct their studies to enjoy 
the advantages of the museums, libraries, laborato- 
ries, observatory, meteorological, piscicultural and 
forestry schools and kindred institutions of the sev- 
eral departments of the Government. 

Yet tlie Carnegie Institute represents only a single 
step towards the exploitation of the immense educa- 
tional facilities of Washington. How rich and varied 
they are may be seen from the consideration of a sin- 
gle department. For instance : Congress appropriated 
nearly $8,000,000 to the Department of Agriculture 
alone for the conduct of experimental research and 
the publication of its results. The Department pub- 
lishes during the year more than 800 different reports 
of investigations made in the Weather Bureau, the 
Bureaus of Entomology, Chemistry, Forestry, Animal 
Industry and Plant Life ; many million copies of which 
are printed and circulated throughout the country. 
More than a thousand scientific experts are employed 
in the departments. All of them are men of exceptional 
attamments and training; many of them are the high- 
est authorities in their special subjects in this country 
or in the world. This, however, comprises the activi- 
ties of only one of the ten great departments. 

Each of the other nine, the Post Office, Treasury, 
Interior, State, Justice, Commerce, Labor, War and 
Navy, with their records and equipment may be con- 
sidered as great experimental stations where investiga- 
tions peculiar to their individual spheres are being con- 
ducted with a degree of accuracy and detail, and upon 
a scale of magnitude unknown, because impossible, 

89 



IV ASH I N GTO X OLD AX D N E W 

elsewhere. These, together with the Supreme Court, 
the Senate and House of Representatives, the great 
Embassies and Legations, as object lessons, form only 
a part of the educational assets of Washington, com- 
pared with which the equipment of even the greatest 
university seems sordid and inadequate. 

To coordinate and centralize their vast possibilities 
upon educational lines, presents an opportunity for con- 
structive genius unrivalled in any age or country. The 
contemplation of it through the deepening perspective 
of centuries inspires us with ever-increasing admiration 
for the wisdom and foresight of the Father of His 
Country, who, with his dying breath, recommended 
the foundation of a National University at the Na- 
tional Capital- 




90 



CHAPTER V 

§>nrtal Asprrts etui Customs, Past mh f rrsrut, 
of % Jfattoual OlapttaL 

Society, like every other phase of Washington hfe, 
is essentially official. No matter how trifling the as- 
sociation or how far removed from civil activities, it 
sooner or later assumes an official complexion, and 
reflects the prevailing atmosphere of the place. Just 
as the National City combines many of the features 
of an overgrown village with those of a great metropo- 
lis, so do its social fmictions present at once a provin- 
cial and a cosmopolitan side, and while, in one sense, 
they are simple and democratic, in another they are 
exclusive and august. 

Existing, as they do, primarily, for the convenience 
of a democratic administration, with a view to promot- 
ing cordial relations throughout its varied personnel, 
and thus increasing the general efficiency of the whole 
governmental machine, they have gradually masked 
themselves into a pyramid, with the President and the 
representatives of the sovereign states at the apex and 
the great unwashed multitude at its base, and in cere- 
monial manifestations range all the way from exclu- 
sive state dinners and presidential receptions down to 
the weekly drawing rooms of cabinet and congressional 
houses, at which all Washington, or all the country, if 
that wxre possible, may assist upon terms of perfect 
equality. 

As may be imagined, a society thus unique has 

evolved in the course of a century a set of conventions, 

i and an order of procedure, which, while subject to in- 

93 



IV A S H I X GT O X OLD AX D N E W 

j cidc'iital cliani^c in dt'tail, accordin^i;- to the caprice of 
/ cliaiii^niii^ administrations, has become estal^lished on 
fairly permanent lines. 

The festivities of the incomini;- achninistration l)ei;in 
\ with the inaui^ural ball (this festivity was al^andoned 

on PresidentW'ilson's advent) tendered l)y the citizens 
of Washington to the new President, at which all may 
be present who are willing- to pay the price. After this, 
aside from the state dinners, the President annually 
gives ofHcial receptions respectively to the diplomatic 
corps, the judiciary, the two Houses of Congress and 
the Army and Xavy. At these receptions tlie wives of 
the Cabinet ministers stand in the receiving line with 
the President and his wife, while the guests of honor, 
the ladies of the diplomatic corps, Congress and the 
judiciary stand in the Blue Room just in the rear of 
the receiving line. Later in the evening they mingle 
with the general multitude. For many years refresh- 
ments were served. President and Mrs. Taft, how- 
ever, have set the precedent of serving a bountiful sup- 
per, which will probably be continued. All the resi- 
dents of Washington, and visiting friends who have 
any claim to social distinction are divided into four 
parts and invited to one or another of four receptions. 
The first, being given to the representatives of the sov- 
ereign states, is naturally thought to be the most ex- 
clusive and distinguished. During the winter some 
state concerts are also given at the White House, at 
• which the lines between the social sheep and goats are 
more closely drawn. During the UK^nth (^f May a 
series of garden ])arties is given, to wliich. as the gar- 
dens are larger than the Wliite House drawing room. 
a greater number of guests are usually invited than 
at other receptions. Refreshments are also ser\ed on 
these occasions. 

94 



W ASHIN GT OX^OLD AND NEW 

Ordinarily the President makes no visits and dines 
only once a year with the several members of his Cabi- 
net. This precedent, however, was overruled by Presi- 
dent Taft, who was noted for his fondness for dining 
with the citizens of the capital The social gulf be- 
tween the President and Vice-President is indicated by 
the frequency with which the latter accepts such invi- 
tations. He is the helpless and often willing victim 
of all the lion hunters in the capital. To entertain a 
Vice-President usually marks the climax in the career 
of the ordinary social climber. Vice-President Mar- 
shall, especially, has made a record along these lines 
which will probably never be challenged. 

The wife of the Vice-President receives on Wednes- 
day, usually from four to six, and as if to mark the 
social equality of the officials, the wife of the Speaker 
of Congress receives on the same day, as do the wives 
of the respective members of the Cabinet. 

The wdves of the Chief Justices and the Associate 
Justices are ''at home" on Monday. Senators' wives 
keep Thursdays and those of Representatives, Tues- 
days. Fridays' have, to some extent, been taken for re- 
ceptions at embassies and legations. Saturdays re- 
main for special teas. Sundays are the days for pure- 
ly social visits, and practically every lady in Washing- 
ton manages to be home on that day, at least from five 
to seven "o'clock. Simple refreshments of tea and 
punch, with sandwiches and cakes are served at all 
except Cabinet houses, where the custom was discon- 
tinued in the early nineties by official request, because 
of the lavish expenditures of some of the more weaUhy 
members of the Cabinet, which put at a disadvantage 
their less fortunate colleagues. On New Year's Dav. 

95 



WASH IN GT ON OLD AND NEW 

however, the ban is removed, when the Cabinet, the 
\'ice-President and the Speaker of the House hold 
high carnival. All Washington on that day indulges 
in a wild ''saturnalia." On such occasion extremes 
meet, and Jones from the south. Smith from Alexan- 
dria, or Brown from Kalamazoo, if, perchance, he 
happens to be present, elbows great ambassadors, Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court, Cabinet ministers. Sena- 
tors, Generals and Admirals. Champagne flows freely 
and terrapin and pate de foi gras are served indiscrimi- 
nately to the multitude. 

While the general public is made welcome at the 
houses of officials, an air of greater exclusiveness ob- 
tains in the Diplomatic drawing room. The embassies, 
however, especially those of England, France, Ger- 
many and Russia have stated days upon which they 
receive all comers. In fact, at the present time 
many of the wives of the resident diplomats in 
Washington are of American birth and of the highest 
type of American womanhood. While identified with 
the sentiments and interests of their adopted country, 
they have always a sympathetic greeting for any 
chance visitors who may stray into their drawing- 
rooms, no matter from what part of the country or 
from what part of the world they may come. Lady 
Herbert, the wife of the late Sir Michael Herbert, who 
was probably the most gracious and capable woman 
who ever presided over the British Embassy, was the 
daughter of Mr. Richard Wilson, of New York City. 
Mrs. Bryce, wife of former Ambassador Bryce. 
though born in England, is the daughter of 
a r>oston merchant, Madame Jusserand, the 
talented and beautiful wife of the French Am- 
bassador, who, by her grace and tactful manner 

96 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

has assisted her husband in obtaining a hold on the 
affections of the American people such as no previous 
French Ambassador has ever before enjoyed, belongs 
also to an American family, although for many years 
a resident of Paris. The Countess Bernstorff and 
Madame Bahkmetieff, respectively the wives of the 
German and Russian Ambassadors, are both American 
women, of truly imperial presence, but distinguished 
for the sweetness of their manners and the kindness 
of their hearts. Madam Bahkmetieff is the daughter 
of the late Gen. Edward F. Beale, and inherits the 
sterling qualities which so greatly endeared that gal- 
lant pioneer and soldier to all classes of his country- 
men. 

Aside from the representatives of the greater 
powers, Madame Riano, the wife of the Spanish Min- 
ister, was Miss Alice Ward, of Washington. Countess 
Moltke, the wife of the Danish Minister, is the daugh- 
ter of the late Nathaniel Thayer, of Boston. The wife 
of the present Minister from Belgium is an American 
as well as were their two immediate predecessors, the 
Countess Buisseret and the Baroness Moncheur, who 
were respectively the daughters of General Story, of 
Washington, and the Hon. Powell Clayton, lately 
Ambassador to Mexico. Madame Loudon, the wife of 
the present Minister from the Netherlands, was Miss 
Eustis of New Orleans. Her predecessor, Madame Van 
Swinderen, is the daughter of Mr. Charles C. Glover, 
of Washington, while the wife of the Greek Minister 
is the daughter of former Senator Cockerell, of Mis- 
souri. 

It is probably not too much to say that the balance 
for peace between America and Europe, and conse- 
quently throughout the world, rests in the persons of 

97 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

these august ladies, through the powerful connection 
which they gained in the lands of their adoption. In- 
fluences of this sort will extend to situations which the 
utterances of the ''Carnegie Institution for Peace" can- 
not reach nor the decisions of the Hague Tribunal 
heal. 

But while the social order of the federal city is, 
strictly speaking, the outgrowth of official necessity 
and natural selection, and must always remain the 
slave of precedent and artificial convention, there has 
grown up in the midst of it a semi-official, and in some 
instances, independent society at once unique, brilliant 
and delightful. It may be said that the possibility of 
this condition of things existed in the neighborhood 
long before the removal of the national capital or the 
designation of the federal district. Travelers in colo- 
nial times have frequently commented upon the at- 
mosphere of culture and refinement that pervaded the 
homes of the old Maryland aristocracy and the cour- 
tesy and decorum which distinguished their social 
intercourse. Into this quiet and dignified com- 
munity the Republican court with its informalities, its 
commercial antecedents, its motley following and 
somewhat sordid belonging was thrust almost with 
meteoric suddenness at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. The fusion of such discordant elements was 
not facilitated by the eight years of ''pell-mell'' and 
generally happy-go-lucky social regime of the Jeffer- 
son administration ; nor yet by the excitement which 
preceded the declaration of war in Madison's adminis- 
tration and the subsequent sacking and burning of 
the Capitol and the Executive Mansion. Yet latent 
elements of mutual assimilation existed, and were 
bound, sooner or later, to assert themselves. The Yan- 

98 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

kee pioneer and backwoodsman of that day, whatever 
might be his other Hmitations, had always in him the 
possibihties of social fitness. He was usually apprecia- 
tive of advantages superior to those which he had pre- 
viously enjoyed, and possessed remarkable adaptability 
in squaring his manners with a new environment. Con- 
sequently the crude and provincial relay of legislators 
and federal officials who presented themselves at peri- 
odic intervals from some twenty outlying districts and 
who were lodged in dormitories like monks and fed 
at club houses and mess rooms like soldiers, could not 
long remain insensible to the charms and blandish- 
ments of local society, nor fail to profit by contact with 
it. Nor did the manorial families fail to discern the 
social possibilities of functions over which senators, 
ambassadors, cabinet ministers or even executive rulers 
were likely to preside. Instinctively the old noblesse 
recognized the embryonic period. Naturally local so- 
ciety had most to gain. And had the official order 
been less kaleidoscopic, the former would necessarily 
have lost its individuality and sunk into to helpless 
dependence upon the latter. But, fortunately for it, 
representatives of the local order remained perma- 
nently on the ground and were in constant possession 
of the accumulating social convention fast hardening 
into precedent, while in three years, or at least in four 
or six, came the ebb and flow of party life followed 
by a complete political upheaval which brought in a 
swarm of uncouth officials, rude in speech and totally 
unversed in the amenities of the social code, who were 
only too happy to accept the existing conditions and 
take advantage of the training offered by the local 
drawing rooms to prepare themselves for the social de- 
mands of their new and exalted station. The danger of 

101 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

stagnation inevitably incident to this condition was 
averted by the presence of the diplomatic corps, whose 
ceaselessly vanishing and succeeding personnel insured 
a reflection from the great world without and afforded 
Washington the benefits of experiments in other capi- 
tals upon similar lines. This situation, more than most 
others, induced a free eclecticism in social usages as 
against the hardening influences of caste rules. 

A contingency equally critical, the bane of every 
democratic society from Athens to Venice and Flor- 
ence, was the growth of the plutocratic element, and 
the consequent overshadowing influence of great 
wealth. From this the national capital has been pro- 
tected by its humble origin, its isolated position, and 
the absence of any great inducement to commercial or 
industrial activities. 

Not only has Washington thus been protected 
against the vicissitudes to w^hich social aggregates in 
other cities have succumbed, but its vitality has from 
time to time been reinforced by the best blood and 
talent of the nation. This would naturally have fol- 
lowed upon the political side, but it is even more true 
beyond the official pale. Retiring Army and Navy offi- 
cers, diplomats, jurists and statesmen have come back 
to pass their declining years amid the activities with 
which their former lives have been associated, and 
where their early laurels were won. Scientific and 
literary men. artists and authors have likewise found 
that \\^ashington affords them the best opportunities 
for their research, and the most fruitful suggestions 
for their art. It thus happens that men of the type of 
Admirals Upshur, O'Neil, Brownson and Baird, Gen- 
erals John M. Wilson and Leonard Wood, the courtly 
and chivalrous Charles L. Fitzhugh, the two Adamses, 

102 




THE CARROLL HOUSE 
(The center of fashionable life thirty years aero. 
Mrs. W. T. Carroll) 



The home of 



W ASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

Henry and Charles Francis, Robert Todd Lincoln, Hil- 
ary A. Herbert, W'ayne MacVeagh, Henry White, 
John Hays Hammond, Gardiner Williams, Larz 
Anderson, and Col. Robert M. Thompson are con- 
stantly gravitating back to Washington to rest after 
the activities of their varied careers. 
/ It has been said that in no place in the world does 
money count for so much or so little as in Washington. 
While it is true that a great statesman may find himself 
at a social disadvantage without adequate income, and 
great wealth, if united with official position, is able to 
attract attention and political following by lavish dis- 
play and entertainment, yet, at the same time, money, 
unaccompanied by other advantages, is nowhere so 
helpless as in Washington, while talent, culture and en- 
gaging personality are always at a high premium. 

But while money counts for little in Washington, 
family for more, and culture and good manners for 
much, official connection counts for about everything. 
Official influence is absolutely necessary to social lead- 
ership or even great social success. The social promi- 
nence of a few unofficial houses might seem to contra- 
dict this statement. It must be remembered, however, 
in this connection, that Mrs. Hobson is the sister-in- 
law of a former vice-president; Mrs. Wadsworth is 
the daughter of a former ambassador to Italy; Mrs. 
Leiter was the mother of the late Vice Reine of India; 
Mrs. Pinchot was the mother of Gififord Pinchot, the 
"Fidus Achates" of the Roosevelt administration, and 
in many respects during that period the most influen- 
tial man in Washington after the President himself, 
while Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston was the niece of 
President Buchanan and was for the four years of his 
administration the mistress of the White House. De- 

105 



IVA SHI X GT O N OLD A X D N E W 

spite such exceptions, more seeming than real, Wash- 
ington society from the times of Dolly Madison fo the 
times of Mrs. Bayard in our own day, has always been 
slow^ in its recognition of social leaders who have not 
behind them the prestige of political position. Mrs. 
Bayard will serve as a good illustration in point. This 
lady numbers among her ancestors or their married 
connection a large part of the aristocracy of the colo- 
nial and revolutionary time. As wife of a former Sec- 
retary of State, she has presided over the most exclu- 
sive diplomatic functions at home, and as first Ameri- 
can Ambassadress to the Court of St. James has been 
received on terms of equality with foreign sovereigns 
abroad. These claims to by-gone greatness without 
the meretricious incidents of great wealth would in 
any other town less steeped in the atmosphere of po- 
litical precedence, soon be forgotten. Not so, how- 
ever, in Washington. It matters not that, Mrs. Bay- 
ard's patrician ancestors and her distinguished hus- 
band have left her little beyond a modest competence, 
and that all around the unpretentious mansion where 
she was born and has always lived have sprung up 
the palaces and almost regal abodes of western million- 
aires and metropolitan money kings, each vying with 
the other in the smartness of equipage and entertain- 
ment, all Washington recognizes her social supremacy 
and flocks to pay court at her drawing rooms, which 
are not only the most distinguished, but the most rep- 
resentative of the national capital. x\bout them lingers 
moreover, a flavour of the Washington of the older 
days. Mrs. Bayard has the reputation of never for- 
getting a friend. Consequently, one meets there not 
only the present-day officials and party leaders, but the 
remaining members of the old cave-dwelling aris- 
tocracy, the Mays, the Riggses. the Carrolls, the Beales, 

10G 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

the Hagners, the Webbs, the Rays, the Eustices, the 
Emorys, the Goldsboroughs, the Addisons, the Blairs, 
the Davidges, and the Charles Campbehs — the untitled 
gentry, so to speak, whose ancestors in other years laid 
the foundation of the social distinction which Wash- 
ington today enjoys. 

Passing out through the portals of the conservative 
old mansion the visitor seems to step back into another 
generation. Within almost a stone's throw are the de- 
scendants of the men who have made the history of the 
country for almost a century past. Adjoining is the 
residence of the late John Hay, President Lincoln's 
private secretary, later Secretary of State and Am- 
bassador to Great Britain and negotiator of the Hay- 
Paiuicefote Treaty. 

Indeed, one seems to return to an olden time and 
realizes more forcibly than ever before that aside ever 
from its official character Washington, has an atmos- 
phere of its own. Adjoining the residence of John Hay 
is the home of Mr. Henry Adams, historian, the grand- 
son of John Quincy Adams, and the son of the Ameri- 
can Minister to Great Britain during the Civil War. A 
little further beyond resided for years the daugh- 
ters of Commodore Wilkes of Mason and Slidell fame. 
Nearby are the homes where lived Bancroft, the his- 
torian, and Bancroft Davis. A block beyond, in a lo- 
cality now given over to business purposes, lived until 
a year or so ago, Mrs. Van Rennsalaer Berry, the 
daughter of the "last of the Patroons" and one of the 
belles of the Second Empire, who entertained the Third 
Napoleon. In the Old Decatur House lives Truxtun 
Beale, at one time Minister to Persia and the son of 
General Edward F. Beale, who was Ambassador to 
Austria under General Grant. Others who have, or 

109 



IV A S H I X GT O X OLD A X D X E ]V 

had, homes in this vicinity are Justice Hohiies, the son 
of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Mrs. Burton Harrison, the 
widow of the private secretary of Jefiferson Davis dur- 
ing- the Civil War, and Miss Calhoun, the grand- 
daughter of the great South Carolina Senator. 

The list might be indefinitely continued, but it is suf- 
ficient to inspire the most casual imagination with the 
conviction that there is an undercurrent in W^ashing- 
ton society which strikes deeper than the routine of 
office or the strife of parties. 



110 



CHAPTER VI 



Itxtxm flf tltr Natt0tt t0 tltf (Eapttal (£ttg. 



By Henry B. F. Macfarland. 



President, 1900 to 1910, of tpie Commissioners, the 
Executive Government of the District of 
Columbia — Chairman National Capital Cen- 
tennial Committee of 1900. 

Never was the country more interested in its 
capital city than now. Never were books and arti- 
cles about Washington more eagerly read. J^ever 
were so many visitors seen in the capital. This is 
partly due to the general interest in the beautifying 
and improving of cities throughout the United States 
promoted by the American Civic Association and 
other organizations for the purpose of bettering mu- 
nicipal conditions. The ''city beautiful" and the 
"city better" have taken the place in the best 
thoughts of city dwellers of the ''city bigger." All 
through the land civic clubs are studying municipal 
problems and doing what they can to bring about 
tennial of the District of Columbia in December, 
1900, when the eyes of the entire country were 
focused upon Washington in a unique way. Usual- 
their right solution. But over and above this gen- 
eral interest there is a very definite and special 
interest on the part of all intelligent Americans m 
the development of the national capital. This has 
been evident ever since the celebration of the cen- 

111 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

ly the average American away from Washington 
reads and therefore thinks only of the national gov- 
ernment, the President, Congress, the Supreme 
Court, the Interstate Commerce Commission and 
not of the city in which the national government 
has its home and therefore not of its municipal 
housekeeping or the financial arrangement under 
which it lives. This is one reason why Senators and 
Representatives like Senator Gallinger of New 
Hampshire, long chairman of the Senate Committee 
on the District of Columbia, who have given a 
great amount of time and thought and effort to the 
legislation and appropriations required for the prog- 
ress of the national capital have not received that 
appreciation of these particular labors which is their 
just due. Senator Gallinger, for example, would be 
praised from one end of the country to the other 
for his ])atriotic and constructive work in behalf of 
the whole country in the upbuilding of this capital 
but as a rule the newspapers outside of ^^'ashing- 
ton do not mention such labors. However, on the 
occasion of the centenary of the national capital 
which was a public holiday in the District of Colum- 
bia for that year, the Washington correspondents 
and the press associations had no news to send out 
except that of the celebration itself and therefore 
the addresses at the A\'hite House and at the cap- 
itol, full of the history of the national capital, of 
its relation to the national government, and of the 
plans for its future progress, received ample space 
in the press and therefore ample attention from the 
readers of the press. Moreover for months before 
and after the magazines and periodicals also con- 
tained many articles on the subject. Later, in 1902, 

112 




HENRY B. F. MACFARLAND 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

a commission consisting of D. H. Burnham, of Chi- 
cago, F. L. Olmsted, of Boston, Charles F. McKim 
and August St. Gaudens, of New York, the greatest 
experts of the country, which had been created by 
the Senate as the outgrowth of the centenary celebra- 
tion presented to the Senate and the country a com- 
prehensive plan for the park development and for the 
erection of public buildings and monuments within 
the District of Columbia, which is the permanent mon- 
ument of the centenary celebration. This report ap- 
plying to the entire District the principles of lhe 
George Washington original plan for the federal city, 
was given great space in the press, daily, weekly and 
monthly publications publishing elaborate articles 
and illustrations. The country realized for the first 
time the present beauty and future possibilities of 
its capital and took a new and enthusiastic interest 
and pride in its progress. 

A Committee of One Hundred Citizens of AA^ash- 
ington, of which Dr. Harvey \A\ AMley is chairman, 
is endeavoring to luring to the attention of Congress 
and of the country anew the facts of the relation of 
the nation to its capital city with a view^ to check- 
ing legislation in Congress which they regard as 
hostile to the progress of the national capital. This 
proposed legislation, the work of a few^ members of 
the House, is avowedly intended to put upon the 
350,000 people living in the District of Columbia, 
of whom nearly one hundred thousand are negroes, 
the largest urban negro population in the world, and 
forty thousand are government employees, the en- 
tire burden of the maintenance and development of 
the common capital of all Americans 1)y doubling 
the taxation. 

115 



IV AS H I X GTO N OLD A X D X E W 

Tlie citizens' coniniittee in a caret u 11 \" prepared 
report, which they would be glad to furnish to any 
one desirini;- it, points out that this would arrest 
and practically destroy the further prof^ress, physi- 
cal and moral, of the capital and that they believe 
this to be contrary to the desire of patriotic Ameri- 
cans everywhere, all of whom take pride in their 
national capital and want it to be in all resj^ects as 
nearly perfect as possible. They show that its 
present condition is due to the progress of the 
past thirty-five years since in 18T8 Congress, after 
four years' study by special and reg^ular committees, 
adopted the present form of government for the 
District of Columbia and j^rovided that thereafter 
the District people should pay one-half the ex- 
])enses and the rest of the countr}' the other half. 
This is what is called the "half and lialf" arrange- 
ment. It was based on the fact thai Washington 
is the national capital and incidentall}' that the na- 
tional government owned (and still owns) at least 
half in value of the real property and pays no taxes. 
No protest has ever been made by an}' organiza- 
tion or individual outside of ^^'ashington to Con- 
gress in all these years against the "half and half" 
arrangement and all Americans have been proud of 
the progress that has resulted. The Senate without 
a division has rejected two of the four measures 
sent to it by the House and intended *to break up 
the ''half and half" arrangement which measures 
have l)een passed in the Ibmse \\hen less than one 
hundred out of the four hundred and thirty-five 
members were present. 1^his action by the Senate 
indicates the view which Senators take of the opin- 
ion of the country on the subject, i towever, the 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

little group of men in the House who are pushing 
this legislation are persistent and the W^ashington 
Committee wants to bring the facts to the atten- 
tion of all the other members in the House and in 
the Senate. They state in their report that they 
believe in the wisdom and justice of Congress when 
it knows the facts and when all the Senators and 
Representatives take part in the legislation. As 
they believe the cause of the national capital to be 
the cause of the whole country they invite the co- 
operation of their fellows-countrymen everywhere 
and ask them to w'rite to their Senators and Repre- 
sentatives requesting that they enact no legislation 
that would be harmful to the progress of the capital 
but that they stand by the present arrangement. 
If the time should ever come, the Committee say, 
when that arrangement should be re-examined, the 
Congress should give the same patient and thorough 
consideration to it wdiich w^as given between 1874 
and 1878 and should substitute something better for 
it. 

The Washington Committee in their report pre- 
sent the facts which many people do not know that 
explain why the whole country should contribute to 
the expenses of the capital. They quote from the 
celebrated report of the Senate District Committee 
in 1835 that the national capital is ''the child of the 
Union" and "a creation of the Union for its own 
purposes." Senator Southard who made that re- 
port, personally remembering the founding of the 
city and familiar with all the official records, said, 
"The design of the Constitution and its founders 
was to create a residence for the government where 
they should have absolute and unlimited control, 

117 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

which shuulcl be regulated and governed by them, 
without the interference of partial interests of the 
States, which should be built up and sustained by 
their effort and resources, not dependent upon the 
will or resources of any State or local interest." 

This fact is also expressed in all the reports of all 
the Congressional committees, including two joint 
select committees which studied the question be- 
tween 1874 and 1878. The great men wdio passed 
what the United States Supreme Court has called 
the "organic act" of 18T8 — Thurman, Bayard, Alli- 
son, Morrill, Abram S. Hewett, Hoar, and men like 
them, who have gone, not to speak of the living, all 
took this view. As the joint select committee re- 
porting in December, 1874, said ''the streets, ave- 
nues, squares, and general plan of the capital citv 
bear the impress of paramount and exclusive na- 
tionality; spacious and grand in design, dedicated 
to the sacred uses of a capital, onerous and intol- 
erable as a charge upon private property, the pro- 
vision of supervision of all suitable im])rovements 
and decorations obviously, properly and imi)era- 
tivcly devolves upon Congress; and it will, as it re- 
spects the character of its jurisdiction and the dig- 
nity of its trust, exercise a jealous care over it." 

Absolute sovereignty, exclusive control imjilied, 
they held, entire responsibility. 

Moreover, they emphasize the fact stated in the 
report just quoted that '' all legislation for the Dis- 
trict must be held to be national in character, and 
])rimarily in the interests of the American ])eople. 
■■' * ■•' The seat of the supreme executive, legis- 
lative and judicial departments of the government, 
serene in its isolation alike from the conflict of fac- 

118 




HON. J. H. GALLINGER, OF NEW HAMPSHIRE 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

tions and the necessities of commerce was to sym- 
bolize the national unity of the people. ''' '^ * 
Congress, by the terms of the Constitution, becomes 
the trustee of the nation, administers its trust in 
its interest, and may not share its trusteeship with 
another to the prejudice of the cestui que trust — 
the body of the American people." 

It is unique among' American cities and unique 
among national capitals for it is the only purely 
national and governmental city in the world. 

The ofBcers and judges are appointed by the na- 
tional government, and the courts are federal. The 
civil and criminal process runs in the name of the 
President of the United States. 

Congress cannot delegate its constitutional duty 
to exercise ''exclusive legislation in all cases what- 
soever" over the federal district. 

The report boils down the official reports of Con- 
gress and the government to show : 

That the nineteen original proprietors of the land 
on which the City of Washington stands gave five- 
sevenths of its area free of cost to the national 
government which built its first national building 
chiefly out of the sale of some of that land. 

That George Washington as his last great task 
planned a magnificent capital for the great country 
that he foresaw in the then infant nation taking over 
fifty-four per cent of the area for streets and ave- 
nues, an unparalleled proportion, besides parks and 
reservations. 

That for reasons set forth In the official reports, 
the national government practically neglected 
George Washington's plan for nearly three-quarters 

121 



JVA S H I X GT O N O LP A N D X E ]V 

of a century and left the burden of maintenance 
and development on the few people resident here. 

11iat the local people bravely attempted to carry 
out the plans, and, according to official reports, ex- 
pended up to 1871 at least $16,000,000 more than 
the national go\'ernment, which until that time had 
spent only a little over $1,000,000 on the streets and 
avenues which it absolutely owmed, under tlie gift 
of the proprietors as interpreted by the United 
States Supreme Court (4 Peters, 232). 

That in doing so they had practically bankrui)ted 
themselves twice and in the latest case, between "1-4 
and "IS, wdien Congress through its agents began 
the execution of the George Washington plans on 
a large scale. 1)ut at the expense of the local people, 
had staggered till they fell under the intolerable 
burden. 

That thereupon Congress first guaranteed the 
debt that had been incurred for national capital 
making and promised to pay its proportionate share, 
and then spent four years in investigations by five 
committees, including two joint select committees, 
and in negotiations with representative citizens of 
the District, resulting in the "compact of 1878"' em- 
bodied in the "organic act" of June 11, 1878, as the 
I'nited States Su])remc Court has called it (and 
also, "the Constitution of the District") and which 
Congress said was to pro\i(le " a permanent form 
of government," under which the present results 
have been obtained. All the plans for the l)etter- 
ment of Washington, including the program of so- 
cial justice and moral reforms recommended l)y the 
District Commissioners depend uj^on the continu- 
ance of the ])resent arrangement. The TTouse \\)- 

122 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

propriations P]ill rejected all the social program 
recommended by the District Commissioners, so as 
to keep unappropriated one and a half millions of 
District revenues which it then proposed should 
be taken from the District and covered into the 
national treasury as national receipts although it had 
been raised by taxation for local purposes and in- 
cluded the contributions of thousands of persons 
who could ill afford to pay taxes. The District local 
revenues next year will be seven million dollars. 
On this basis the District residents will pay per 
capita $20 a year and the rest of the people of the 
country pay between six and seven cents per capita. 

That the people of the District already pay full 
national taxes (and more than any one of a num- 
ber of States) and have consented to taxation by 
Congress higher per capita than that imposed in a 
majority of the cities of similar population and 
higher per capita than in the great majority of all 
cities of the United vStates of over thirty thousand 
population as shown in the United States Census 
report (bulletin 119) published in 1913. 

That that bulletin shows that the total assessed 
valuation of property in Washington in 1912 was 
$1,050 per capita, more than the similar per capita 
in 155 out of the 195 cities having over thirty thou- 
sand population. 

That the per capita tax levy, the combination 
of the assessment and the rate ; indicating the 
amount of taxes paid, which is the true measure of 
taxation, was $15.75 in Washington in 1912 which is 
more than the per capita tax levy in 149 out of the 
195 cities. These figures cover school tax and all 
similar levies. Among the 149 cities having a lower 

123 



JV A S H I X G T X OLD A X D N E JV 

per cai)ita tax than Washington are Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, Xew Orleans^ Jersey City, Seattle, Kan- 
sas City (Missouri), Indianapolis, Louisville, St. 
Paul, Columbus, Toledo, Atlanta, ^^'orcester, Bir- 
ming-ham, Memphis, Scranton and many other great 
manufacturing and commercial cities of vastly 
greater wealth than the national capital. A num- 
ber of them have a larger population. 

This is emphatically a city of homes, of small 
real estate holdings. The official figures at the Dis- 
trict building show that there are in the District of 
Columbia 85,0;^! buildings of which 25,000 are frame 
l)uildings, and that only 3,001 are assessed at five 
thousand dollars and upwards. Therefore, more 
than 82,000 of these buildings are assessed at less 
than $5,000.00. There are over fifty thousand tax- 
payers owning small homes. 

There are no large fortunes; no large industries 
or commerce. 

As always the increased taxation would fall 
heaviest on those least a1)le to bear it and would 
compel hundreds of small property owners to for- 
feit their equities in their homes, besides increasing 
the rents of those who ])ay taxes in rent. 

As t(» the untaxed land holdings of the national 
government, neither the Congressional reports nor 
the ]:>rivate statements turn on their exact propor- 
tion to ])rivate property. It is officially stated, of 
course, that of the original city area over fifty-four 
l^er cent was taken by the national government in 
fee sim]de for streets, avenues, parks and reser\a- 
tions. The old city is still the greatest part of the 
built-u]) ])ortion of the District of Columl)ia and in- 
cludes all its most valuable real estate. Besides this 

P24 






1 li Ti II 



li! Ill l«: 



MUNICIPAL BUILDING 
(Shepherd Monument in fores^roundi 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

the national government owns about three thou- 
sand acres outside of the old city. It is notorious 
that it has added large tracts of land, partly by 
river front improvements and partly by acquisition, 
all of the latter being directly withdrawn from for- 
mer taxable area. It has at least an equal holding 
in value to the land in private hands. Congress has 
also liberally exempted ecclesiastical, charitable and 
educational property from taxation, reducing the 
taxable area. 

The Congressional reports are most emphatic in 
resting the argument for the nation's contribution 
to the upbuilding of its capital upon its national 
character and the exclusive control of the national 
government and not upon the proportion of land 
held by it here. 

The makers of the "organic act" of 1878 consid- 
ered providing a larger contribution by the national 
government than half of the expense of the national 
capital. They considered the proposition of having 
the District people pay reasonable average taxes and 
having the United States pay whatever else was 
needed even if it was two-thirds of the whole ex- 
pense. But they wisely decided that it was better 
to have the United States pay only one-half of the 
expense under a definite, permanent arrangement 
than to leave the national contribution to r^epend, 
in the language of Mr. Blackburn of Kentucky, who 
reported the ''organic act" to the House, on the 
"whim and caprice" of each recurring session, there- 
by, as he said, making uncertain at once the prog- 
ress of the capital and the value of every piece of 
private property in it. 

127 



Washington Explains the Senate 

THERE were objections to a permanent Presi- 
dent; some would have preferred, as a very 
few would still prefer, to have a system like 
that now prevailing in the Swiss Confederation, and 
to place at the head merely the chairman of a commit- 
tee. Again, there existed a variety of opinions as to a 
legislature of one or two Houses. It is said that when 
Jefferson returned from France he was breakfasting 
with Washington, and asked hini why he agreed to a 
Senate. 

"Why," said Washington, "did you just now pour 
that coffee into your saucer before drinking it?" "To 
cool it," said Jefferson; "my throat is not made of 
brass." "Even so," said Washington, "we pour our 
legislation into the Senatorial saucer to cool it."- — Hig- 
ginson's "History of the United States." 

Dolly Madison and Mrs. Monroe 

The diary of John Quincy Adams records Cabinet 
meetings devoted to such momentous questions as who 
should make the first call, and who should be included 
in the official visiting lists. Mrs. Monroe, without a 
Cabinet council, made up her mind to retrench some 
of these profuse civilities with which her predecessors 
had fatigued themselves. Mrs. Madison, a large, 
portly, kindly dame, had retired from office equally 

128 



WAS HI N GTO X OLD AND NE IV 

regretted by the poor of Washington and by its high 
Ufe; but she had gained this popularity at a severe 
cost:— she had called on all conspicuous strangers. 
Mrs. Monroe intended to call on nobody. Mrs- Madi- 
son had been always ready for visitors when at home ; 
her successor proposed not to receive them except at 
the regular levees. The ex-Presidentess had presided 
at her husband's dinner parties, and had invited the 
wives of all the men who were to be guests ; Mrs. IMon- 
roe stayed away from the dinner parties, and so the 
wives were left at home. Add to this that her health 
was bv no means strong, and it is plain that there was 
great ground for a spasm of unpopularity. She, how- 
ever, outlived it, reestablished social relations, gave 
fortnightly receptions, and won much admiration, 
which she' probably deserved. 

When Benton Shot Jackson 

Jackson engaged in a disgraceful street fight at 
Nashville with the future Senator Benton and his 
brother, and the latter inflicted a terrible wound m 
Jackson's arm with a pistol shot. He was still m bed 
when the Tennesseans were aiming to avenge Fort 
Mims A friend called on Jackson and expressed his 
deep regret that the Commander of the Militia was not 
in condition to lead the enemy against the Creeks. 
Jackson's eves flashed instantly, and he answered. 

-The h i he isn't," whereupon he leaped from his 

bed and an hour later he was astride his horse at the 
head of his army.— Parton's "Life of Jackson. 

The Origin of "Old Hickory" 
In the early part of the war Jackson raised two thou- 
129 



IVASHINGrON OLD AND NEW 

sand troops and was sent down the Mississippi as far 
as Natchez. But as no enemy appeared, he was or- 
dered, in the spring of 1813, to disband the army. Jack- 
son was very indignant at this order. It was cruel and 
outrageous, he said, to lead men five hundred miles 
from home and turn them out without money or food. 
He chose to disobey the order ; he marched the men 
back to Tennessee, at his own expense. But the Gov- 
ernment afterward assumed the expense. The General 
had three good horses ; but these he gave to the sick, 
while he walked with the rest. \M'iile tramping along 
some one said, "The General is tough," and another 
added, ''As tough as hickory." From this he soon came 
to be called "Old Hickory," and the name clung to 
him through life. — Elson's "History of the United 
States." 

Jackson as a Duelist 

Jackson's wonderful nerve and physical courage 
were never shown to greater advantage than in his duel 
with Charles Dickinson in 1806. Dickinson was one 
of the richest men, and certainly the best marksman, in 
Tennessee. He and Jackson had long been enemies, 
and he frequently tried to provoke Jackson to a duel 
with the intent to kill him. At last he succeeded by 
reflecting on the character of Jackson's wife, and the 
challenge came. The two parties rode into Kentucky, 
and at day break, on May 30, the duel was fought. 
Jackson was an excellent shot, but he did not compare 
with Dickinson, and every one expected that he would 
be killed. At the word "fire," Dickinson fired instantly, 
and a puff of dust was seen at Jackson's breast ; but he 
stood like a statue, with clenched teeth- Dickinson 
stepped back and cried, "My God, have I missed him?" 

130 



W ASH I N GT O K OLD AND N E W 

General Overton, Jackson's second, drew his pistol and 
ordered Dickinson to stand still. Jackson deliberately 
fired and shot Dickinson through the body. As they 
went to the inn it was noticed that Jackson's boots were 
full of blood. ''General, you are hit," cried Overton. 
''Oh, I believe he has pinked me a little," said Jackson ; 
"but don't mention it over there," pointing to the home 
where Dickinson lay dying. 

It w^as found that Dickinson's aim had been perfect, 
but that his bullet had only broken a rib and raked the 
breastbone. Jackson, asked how he could stand mo- 
tionless with such a wound, said, "I should have hit 
him if he had shot me through the brain.", — Parton's 
"Life of Jackson. 

Couldn't Fool Jackson 

"Do you think," said Jackson, in 182 1, "that I am 
such a damned fool as to think myself fit for the Presi- 
dency ? No, sir ; I know what I am good for. I can 
command a body of men in a rough way, but I am 
not fit to be President." — Parton's "Life of Jackson." 

Jackson and the Supreme Court 

When President, he (Jackson) refused to be bound 
by the Supreme Court, on the ground that he would 
sustain the Constitution as he understood it, and not 
as it was interpreted by others. For example, when 
Georgia had trouble with the Creeks, she condemned 
a half-breed named Tassels to be hanged. Tassels ap- 
pealed to the Supreme Court, and the decision was 
reversed. The State then was cited on a writ of error. 
But Georgia was defiant and refused to be bound by 
the decision. It was now Jackson's plain duty to en- 

131 



IV AS H I N GT O N OLD AND N E W 

force the decision of the Supreme Court, but he refused 
to do so. '70^"^^ Marshall has made his decision/' he 
is reported to have said, ''now let him enforce it" — 
and Tassels was hanged. — Elson's ''History of the 
Ignited States." 

How Van Buren "Played Safe" 

( )ne day Van Buren handed an official paper that he 
had written to a clerk to be criticized, and the latter 
declared that he couldn't tell what it was about. "Very 
well," answered Van Buren, "it will answer then." A 
member of Congress, it was said, made a bet with an- 
other that if Van Buren were asked if the sun rose 
in the east or west, he would not give a direct answer. 
The question was asked and the answer was "My 
friend, east and west are altogether relative terms." — 
Elson's "History of the United States." 

Morse's Fight for the Telegraph 

Samuel F. P>. Morse had labored for years on the 
telegraph, and had almost reduced himself to penury. 
In 1842, he was granted the privilege of setting up his 
telegraph in the lower rooms of the Capitol- The ex- 
periment was successful, and the members of Congress 
could hardly believe their senses as Morse enabled 
them to converse with one another from the different 
rooms. And yet, when he asked an appropriation of 
$30,000 to establish an experimental line from Wash- 
ington to Baltimore, there was much opposition. Many 
were the shafts of ridicule thrust at the new invention. 
One member moved that half of the appropriation be 
used to experiment in mesmerism ; another that an ap- 
propriation be made to construct a railroad to the 

132 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

moon. One prominent member pronounced all "mag- 
netic telegraphs miserable chimeras, fit for nothing." 
Another lost his seat in the House at the next election 
because he voted for the appropriation. While the de- 
bate was in progress Morse stood leaning against the 
railing in the House in great agitation. A friend went 
to console him, and Morse, placing his hand to his head, 
said : "I have an awful headache * * ''' I have 
spent seven years in perfecting this invention, and all 
that I had. '^' * ''' If the bill fails, I am ruined. 
" * "' I have not money enough to pay my board 
bill." He was greatly relieved soon after by the pass- 
ing of the bill. His fortune was made, and the name 
of Morse must forever be inseparable from the tele- 
graph. — Sargent's "Public Men and Events." 

John Randolph and Henry Clay 

No man ever in public life in America had greater 
power in winning personal friends than Henry Clay. 
When John Randolph, who had been Clay's political 
enemy for many years, and with whom he had fought 
a duel, visited Washington in the last year of his life, 
he called on Clay. Clay received him very kindly, and 
asked about his health- Randolph replied, "I'm dying. 
Clay, I'm dying." "Why, then," asked Clay, "do you 
venture so far from home, why did you come here?" 
"To see you," answered Randolph, "to see you and 
have one more talk with you." 

Clay and Van Buren "Behind the Scenes" 

On one occasion when Henry Clay was making a 
tour through the South, there was on the same train a 
farmer, an old school Democrat, who was invited to 

135 



IVASHINGTO N OLD AND NEW 

step into the next car and meet Clay. "No," he an- 
swered, "I would not be seen shaking hands with 
Henry Clay, the old Whig-." He was informed that 
his idol. Van Buren, would never do such a thing. He 
offered to make a bet that he was right and agreed to 
let Clay decide the bet. They came to Clay's seat and 
stated the case. "Yes," answered Clay, "Van Buren is 
a good friend of mine and he made me a visit at my 
home in Lexington. Setting aside his bad politics, he 
is an agreeable gentleman and a right clever little fel- 
low." The man paid his bet and went away muttering 
that if this is the way the great men acted they might 
fight their own battles thereafter ; he didn't believe they 
were in earnest anyhow^ only pretended to be so far as 
to set others by the ears. — Sargent's "Public Men and 
Events." 

Henry Clay's Ready Wit 

Clay was a man of ready wit, and he often astonished 
his friends by his answers. The following is a sample : 
One day, while at a Philadelphia hotel, he was called on 
by John W. Forney, editor of the Press, in company 
with Forrest, the actor. It was just after the great de- 
bates in the Senate on the Omnibus Bill, and these de- 
bates soon became the topic of conversation, especially 
the opposition Clay had encountered from Senator 
Soule, of Louisiana. Whereupon Clay exclaimed, 
"Soule is not an orator, he is nothing but an actor, a 
mere actor." No sooner had he said this than he real- 
ized the presence of Forrest, the actor, and, turning to 
him, added, "I mean, my dear sir, a French actor, a 
mere French actor." — Forney's "Anecdotes of Men." 

186 



WASHINGTON OLD AND NEW 

The Pompous Lewis Cass 

One of the leading hotels in Washington at this pe- 
riod (in the forties) was Guy's Hotel, and here many 
of the leading Government officials, including General 
Cass, stayed while at the Capital. It happened that 
General Cass and Mr. Guy, the hotelkeeper, both large, 
corpulent men, looked very much alike, and each was 
often mistaken for the other. One day a western man 
came to the hotel and met General Cass on the porch 
and, taking him for Guy, slapped him on the shoulder 
and began, ''Here I am again, old fellow ; last time I 
hung up my hat in your shanty, they put me on the 
fourth floor. Want a better room this time. How 
about it, old man?" Cass braced himself up with great 
dignity and answered : "Sir, you've committed a blun- 
der. I'm General Cass, of Michigan," turned about, 
and walked off. The man stood and looked after him. 
dazed at his mistake. Presently Cass walked around 
that way again and the man again took him for Guy 
and exclaimed: "Here you are at last; I've just made 
a devil of a blunder. I met old Cass and took him for 
you, and I'm afraid the old Michigander has gone off 
mad" Just then Guy appeared on the scene. 

When Lincoln Came as President 

Lincoln's journey to the Capital was roundabout. He 
passed through most of the large northern cities, and in 
his brief addresses he seemed to treat the grave state of 
the country too lightly, declaring that there was no need 
of fear that there would be any bloodshed. When in 
Philadelphia on February 22d, he received letters from 
Seward and General Scott advising that his published 
programme be changed, as there were serious threats 

137 



WASHINGTON OLD AX D X E W 

of assassinating- him when he passed through Balti- 
more. To this he refused to agree. 'T cannot consent 
to it," said he, ''what would the Nation think of its 
President stealing into the Capital like a thief in the 
night?" He went to Harrisburg that morning and 
there it was determined by his friends that it was need- 
less to endanger his life, and that he should go to 
Washington incognito during the coming night. Lin- 
coln yielded, but he ever afterward regretted having 
done so. Colonel Scott, President of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, took entire charge of the project. He cut all 
the telegraph wires leading out of Harrisburg and sent 
Lincoln with a single companion, Colonel Lamon, to 
Philadelphia to catch the night train to Washington. 
Everything went smoothly, and after the friends of 
Lincoln had spent a sleepless night at Harrisburg, the 
wires being repaired about daybreak, they received the 
cipher telegram previously agreed on, 'Tlums deliv- 
ered, nuts safely," and Colonel Scott threw his hat into 
the air and shouted, "Lincoln, in Washington." — See 
McClure's "Lincoln and Men of War Times." 



138 



I 



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